Thursday, July 23, 2026
Jerry's House of Everything: SUSPENSE: THE BLACK CURTAIN (NOVEMBER 30, 1944)
Thursday Treats: 7/23/2026
Some reading opportunities of interest this week.
SMFS
list member Mia Dalia announced that her short story, B Minor, was published
online at The Sunlight Press. You can read it for free here.
SMFS
list member James Patrick Focarile
announced that his short story, What Whiskey Won’t Cure, was published online
at The Saturday Evening Post. You can read it for free here.
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Black
Cat Weekly #255 is out and includes short stories by SMFS
list members N. M. Cedeño (Mirror Life
Meltdown), Stacy Woodson (She Loves You), and others. You can pick up the
latest issue here.
SMFS
list member James
W. Ziskin announced that his latest novel, The
Prank, comes out on the 28th. “Set in Christmas 1968, a
thirteen-year-old sociopath befriends his teacher, unaware she loved the man
his prank accidentally killed.” Published by Level
Best-Historia, the read is available in both digital
and print formats at Amazon and other
vendors.
Coming early next month. and edited by SMFS list members, Editors Gigi Pandian and Tom Mead, All the Crime in the World: Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Puzzles. According to the synopsis, the anthology will feature 14 short stories by Victor Bonini, James Scott Byrnside, Shelly Dickson Carr, S.A. Cosby, Anne van Doorn, Martin Edwards, Sulari Gentill, Paul Halter, Christopher Huang, Vaseem Khan, Josh Pachter (The Allegory of the Five Senses), Masaya Yamaguchi, Ovidia Yu, and a brand-new collaboration from the editors. It is currently available for preorder at the publisher, Crippen and Landru.
And,
finally, for something completely different, the fantasy novel, Immortalized
Memories of the Omniverse: Rise of the Draconic Hero, by Alex Rosen is now out. Epic Fantasy and more are present
in this read. I am reading more than one book right now, always a dangerous
practice on my part, and this is one of them. I am not one for fantasy these
days, but I am enjoying it. Sent to me by the publisher, you can get it at Amazon or many other vendors.
Until next time….
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
In Reference to Murder: Media Murder for Monday
Jerry's House of Everything: SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: ICU
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: "Kill Now—Pay Later" by Rex Stout
Short Story Wednesday Review: The Last Laugh by Robert Jakues (Thriller Magazine: June 2026)
The police procedural short story, The
Last Laugh, by Robert Jakues appears in the Thriller Magazine: June 2026
issue and it is a very good tale. The story opens with Detective opens with Detective
Pilsudski being awakened by Sergeant Jack Couch calling him at home long before
dawn. Pilsudski is the weekend on call Homicide Detective in South Central Los
Angeles. There is a body and he is needed. Before long he meets his partner
Detective Jim Hampton at their 77th street station house. Together, they head to
the scene.
It is mid-winter and the chilly night air
off the Pacific certainly isn’t warming anything or anyone on the deserted
streets.
The dead man is sprawled out on the
sidewalk mid-block on Dalton Avenue. He’s been shot in the back of the head. When
the body is rolled on its side by the coroner investigator, he found an open
black wallet. Inside, the driver’s license identifies the dead man as Gaylord Pettis.
Now it is up to Detective Pilsudski and Hampton to determine who killed Mr.
Gaylord Pettis and why in this very good short story by Robert Jakues.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4futRwr
My digital reading copy came by way of
my ninety-day free Kindle Unlimited trial.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
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