Friday, March 20, 2026
Bitter Tea and Mystery: A Brush with Death: Sheila Pim
Bitter Tea and Mystery: A Brush with Death: Sheila Pim: Between 1945 and 1952, Sheila Pim, an Irish crime novelist and horticulturist, published four mysteries set in Ireland and with a focus on...
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Black Stage
In Reference to Murder: Friday's "Forgotten" Books: The Black Stage: On a paperback copy of The Black Stage by Anthony Gilbert dating from 1955, there was this bit of biographical info regarding Gilbert: ...
Thursday, March 19, 2026
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange
In Reference to Murder: Mystery Melange: William Kent Krueger was honored with the Founder’s Award at this past weekend's Tucson Festival of Books. The award is given in recog...
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) by P.J. Fitzsimmons
Beneath the Stains of Time: The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) by P.J....: P.J. Fitzsimmons ' The Case of the Case of Kilcladdich (2023) is the sixth entry in the Anthony "Anty" Boisjoly series of Wo...
Thursday Treats: 3/19/2026
The latest reading opportunities…
Murderous Ink
Press
released the new anthology, Crimeucopia - A
Coterie Of Dicks. SMFS list members Josh Pachter, Gerald Elias, Jim
Guigli, M. E. Proctor, and others, have short stories in the read. Pick it up at Amazon and elsewhere.
Rock and A Hard Place announced their
new book, A Woman’s Guide
to True Crime by Mary Thorson was now out. Each piece
in the book details a historical event by way of the victims, the killers, or
the woman impacted by the crime. You can learn more about the book at their website.
Musician and author Tim Bryant has been busy. The Ballad of Peechie Keen: A Dutch Curridge Mystery is out as is
the short story collection, Angels, Unaware:
Stories from East Texas.
SMFS list member Nikita Costiuc announced that his short story,
A Yellow Speck, appears online at the Canadian literary journal, Moonlit
Getaway. He bills it as a “southern gothic” tale. You can read it for
free at the website.
SMFS list member DK Snyder announced
that her solve-it-yourself mystery, Harmonica Blues, was published in the March
23rd issue of Woman’s World Magazine. The issue is available
now on newsstands, grocery stores, and elsewhere. You are looking for the issue
with Valerie Bertinelli on the cover.
For Friday the 13th, Punk
Noir published, Find What You Love and Let It Kill You #2 — a PUNK NOIR
Magazine series. This series of short stories are all free to read online at
their website. SMFS list
member Elizabeth Dearborn (Shop Till You Drop) and Wil A. Emerson (Scored Zero),
short stories appear as do others.
SMFS member Barb Goffman shared the news of the latest issue of Black Cat Weekly. As always, the issue is full of short stories, novellas, and more. You can pick it up here. A single digital issue is $2.99, but the longer subscriptions are the real deal and the way to go.
Inkd Publishing announced their
Kickstarter for the
anthology, Detectives, Sleuths, & Nosy Neighbors III. The
book will include short stories by SMFS list members, N. M. Cedeño (The
Assassination Game), Shari Held (The Mansion on the Hill), Kathleen Marple Kalb
(Spring Death Cleaning), Aime Kluck (Peril in Provincetown), Bev Myers (Three Fingers
of Fate), Karen Oden (Murder at Angelique), and SB Watson (The Silent Herd), among
others, are going to be in the anthology scheduled to be out in June.
Bev Myers also has a short story in the
new anthology, The Dichotomy of Love. Published by Lowell &
Benson Publishing, the read is available at
Amazon and other vendors.
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
SleuthSayers: Back to the Bay
SleuthSayers: Back to the Bay: Getting Historical with Aubrey Hamilton, Diana R. Chambers, Karen Odden, S.J. Rozan I spent the last week in San Francisco, eating Rice-a-...
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE DEATH CRY
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE DEATH CRY: "The Death Cry" by Arthur B. Reeve (first published in Weird Tales , May, 1935; reprinted in The Television Detectives' Omni...
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Hey, Kids! Check Out Some Fantastic Recent Tales f...
The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog: Hey, Kids! Check Out Some Fantastic Recent Tales f...: With 2026 in full swing, the members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society are continuing to turn out the very finest short stories for fans ...
Monday, March 16, 2026
Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Trust in Me: A Novel by Luca Veste
Luca Veste is a UK author who has published a dozen crime fiction novels in as many years. Seven of them combine a police procedural with elements of psychological thrillers and the others are stand-alone thrillers. The paperback edition of Trust in Me, a psychological thriller, is being released by Black Spring Crime in early April 2026.
Sara grew up in a small town in southwestern England and ended up married to a U.S. citizen, living in suburban Connecticut. She’s developed a successful career as a trauma counselor and she’s immersed in her role as a mother to her two children Olivia and JJ. Her husband Jack is deeply engrossed in his investments job, to the extent that he routinely misses family events and meals.
A new client arrives at Sara’s office one day and under the seal of patient confidentiality tells Sara she killed someone. Dumbfounded, Sara listens to the circumstances of the murder which are eerily similar to a situation that occurred to Sara some 20 years earlier in England, where her then-boyfriend got into a drunken fight with another young man, who died as a result of the brawl. Only according to the new client, she was responsible for the death, not her boyfriend.
Sara was staggered that someone else should have had a similar experience. The situation was never reported and as far as Sara knew, only she and her then-boyfriend knew about it. In the following days she became convinced that the new client in fact was talking about her and the long-past incident and was trying to make her admit to it. A car with a couple of strangers follows her, she receives random threatening telephone calls, and other eerie episodes make her increasingly frightened and unnerved, resulting in erratic behavior on her part. What follows is an adrenalin-fueled nightmare that twists and spins in unpredictable ways to a stunning conclusion.
Veste creates tension-filled scenes, credible characters, and a surprise conclusion that in retrospect I realized had been hinted at all along. Fans of domestic thrillers and psychological suspense will want to add this title to their reading lists.
• Publisher: Black Spring Press
• Publication date: April 7, 2026
• Language: English
• Print length: 362 pages
• ISBN-10: 1917788029
• ISBN-13: 978-1917788021
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4uq0SQO
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Little Big Crimes: Glass Beach, by Michael Bracken
Little Big Crimes: Glass Beach, by Michael Bracken: "Glass Beach," by Michael Bracken, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2026. This is the twelfth appea...
KRL Update
Up on KRL this week reviews and giveaways of 2 mysteries by Victoria Gilbert-"Schooled in Murder" and "A Deadly Clue" https://kingsriverlife.com/03/14/a-pair-of-cozy-mysteries-by-victoria-gilbert/
And a review and ebook giveaway of "More Than You Know" by Anne Canadeo, along with an interesting interview with Anne https://kingsriverlife.com/03/14/more-than-you-know-by-anne-canadeo/
And in honor of Saint Patrick's Day, we have a review and giveaway of "Buried in Shamrocks" by Lisa Q. Mathews https://kingsriverlife.com/03/14/buried-in-shamrocks-by-lisa-q-mathews/
We also have a fun mystery short story by Michael Bracken https://kingsriverlife.com/03/14/mystery-short-story-wealth-of-knowledge/
Up on KRL News and Reviews this week we have a review and giveaway of "Missing" by David Beckler https://www.krlnews.com/2026/03/missing-by-d-e-beckler-reviewgiveaway.html
And a review and ebook giveaway of "Round Up the Unusual Suspects" by Elizabeth Crowens https://www.krlnews.com/2026/03/round-up-unusual-suspects-by-elizabeth.html
Happy reading,
Lorie
Guest Post: Reprise - Kansas City Breakdown by M.E. Proctor
In the
middle of next month, Kansas City
Breakdown, will be released by Cowboy Jamboree Press. The book by
M. E. Proctor and Russell Thayer is a sequel to their Bop City Swing of last year. Please
welcome back M. E. Proctor to the blog today as she explains how the new book came
to be in this guest post.
Reprise - Kansas City Breakdown
by M.E. Proctor
When
Russell Thayer and I started Bop City Swing two years ago (already!),
neither of us had ever written a piece of fiction in collaboration. My only
experience with a vaguely similar joint effort goes back to producing a
200-page report with a colleague on the dry subject of alternative forms of
work organization (I’m not going to go into the nuts and bolts of that) when I
was on a research contract with a European university. I don’t remember how we managed
the writing part. What I recall is how much fun we had in the sandbox coming up
with wild ideas. And how much fun my research partner was. I can still picture
him. A dude tall as a giraffe, under thirty but with less hair left on his head
than a newborn chicken. He was quirky and brilliant. Christopher Lloyd in Back
to the Future. I suspect he smoked more than the cigarettes that he puffed
on constantly when we were together. Damn it, man, open the window! We
shared a tiny office, next to a rumbling mechanical room, blissfully remote
from the rest of the Economics Department and its stern director. We locked the
door to keep snoops away.
So
yes, I like to work with people. They should be a little mad and chaotic, to
balance my very organized mind.
If we
had sat down to ponder methods and objectives, Russell and I might never have
gotten out of the starting blocks. We just said, what the hell let’s do it, let’s
write a story featuring these two characters that we have put in a bunch of
stories already, and see where it takes us.
We created
an inciting incident, a political assassination in 1951 San Francisco, and threw
our characters into it. My protagonist, SFPD Homicide Detective Tom Keegan,
worked the case. The role of Russell’s leading lady—Vivian Davis aka Gunselle,
a killer-for-hire—was more of a head-scratcher. We brainstormed options,
discarded a bunch of them before landing on a promising one: Vivian was hired
to shoot the guy but somebody beat her to it. She’s pissed off because she was
robbed of a fat paycheck. Both Tom and Viv are hunting the killer. They each
have part of the solution. Eventually their paths will cross with explosive
results.
Bop
City Swing was conceived as a
stand-alone. Then we found a publisher (Cowboy Jamboree Press) and started
thinking about a follow-up. Tom and Vivian were great characters and deserved
another walk in the spotlights.
Follow-ups,
reprises, book #2 in a series can be tricky.
First
problem. The characters have a common history now. Supporting players have been
introduced. There’s a chronology of events, and continuity to think about. No
more meet-cute: he’s a cop and she’s a killer. Their interactions are ambiguous,
by definition. Add to that the attraction she feels for him and the temptation
she represents for him. The sexual tension between them added spice to the
first book. In the second one, it has to be picked up and given an extra tug.
To make things even more complicated, Tom is in a long-term relationship with a
spunky San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter.
Second
problem. The plot and the theme. Bop City Swing revolved around politics
and the misdeeds of the moneyed class. It was also a story of revenge and
trauma wrapped inside a murder investigation. Book #2 has to go in a completely
different direction.
One
way to mark a radical shift is to change locations. We left San Francisco and
decided to go to Kansas City. Jazz music, still, but with a side of barbecue. Then
we opened the Noir Codex on a couple of new pages. Under G and M for Gangsters
and Goons, Mobsters and Molls. And Russell and I went to work using our
favorite technique, the key questions:
Why would Vivian and Tom get together and what are they doing in Missouri?
As is
always the case when you put all the ideas in a big pot and stir vigorously, answers
come and keep coming as the plot progresses. Secondary characters walk on stage
and demand attention. Some almost get killed but survive because we like them
so much. Others aren’t so lucky. And the end is never exactly what you have in
mind at the beginning.
Here’s
how we answered our key questions.
The book starts with an FBI undercover operation. The plan is to infiltrate a
high-level Kansas City Mob meeting to gather information. A San Francisco
gangster is going to the conference and is considered a ‘soft’ target. He can
be seduced. A honey trap. If the right woman for the job can be found. Tom
knows somebody who could pull it off, but what will he have to do to convince
her? Vivian doesn’t work for the police. Tom has a stake in the success of the
mission. He’s her designated handler. His job is to get her out alive.
The
book is called Kansas City Breakdown.
In
music, according to Wikipedia, a ‘breakdown’ is a section of song characterized
by solo performances. Vivian and Tom have their starring moments. They also
play well together.
--
Latest Publication:
Kansas City Breakdown
By M.E. Proctor and Russell Thayer
Publisher: Cowboy Jamboree
April 2026
Paperback
eBook
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4sJcEnQ
M. E. Proctor ©2026
M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of
the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday and Catch
Me on a Blue Day (Shotgun Honey Books).
She’s the author of two short story collections, Family and Other Ailments and A Book to Live By. She’s also the co-author with
Russell Thayer of two retro-noirs: Bop City Swing and Kansas City Breakdown. Short fiction in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review and Black Cat Weekly among
others. She’s a Shamus and Derringer short story nominee.
Author Website: www.shawmystery.com.
On Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com.
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Murder is Everywhere: The Top Ten Best Short Story Mysteries of All Time
Murder is Everywhere: The Top Ten Best Short Story Mysteries of All Time: Jeff–Saturday There is so much (good) news I have to share...but cannot talk about quite yet. All I can say is that it's kept me so bu...
Beneath the Stains of Time: Panic Party: Case Closed, vol. 97 by Gosho Aoyama
Beneath the Stains of Time: Panic Party: Case Closed, vol. 97 by Gosho Aoyama: Gosho Aoyama 's 96th volume of Case Closed starts out, as is tradition, with the conclusion to the story that closed out the previous v...
Jerry's House of Everything: PEP COMICS #1 (JANUARY 1940)
Jerry's House of Everything: PEP COMICS #1 (JANUARY 1940): Pep Comics was the third anthology comic book published by MLJ Publications. In issue #42 (December 1941) it introduced the character of A...
Scott's Take: Absolute Flash Vol 1: Of Two Worlds by Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles (Illustrator)
Absolute Flash Vol 1: Of Two
Worlds by Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles (Illustrator) is a read in the Absolute
Universe where The Flash is reimagined. In this universe, the legacy of
The Flash is gone, there is no speed force, and Wally is on his own. After an
accident at a government facility military brat Wally West became a speedster.
Feeling overwhelmed by these new powers and dealing with the loss of his mother
he went on the run. The government is going to track him down and bring him
back. They want his powers at any cost. His father thinks he can control the
situation and protect his son. Of course,
the government does not care about the boy. They just want his powers at any
cost. They will bring him in either alive or dead.
The art is excellent. It’s also
nice to read a Jeff Lemire title in the DC universe again. I like his writing,
but he is mostly doing indie horror comics now, and I am just not a horror guy.
I really like this new version of Grodd that is introduced in this volume. The
Rogues are now government operatives instead of just bank robbers. They are now
“the good guys” instead of the bad guys. This series will continue with Absolute Flash Vol 2: Still Point.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4c2z2DF
I read the eBook copy of this
through the DC Universe Infinite
App.
Scott A. Tipple ©2026
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