I replaced the cover and was about to press it back into a locked position when I heard what I thought were footsteps, the scuff of shoes on gravel. I cocked my head toward the sidewall, trying to listen. Was someone out… Read More ›
Book Reviews
Naomi Hirahara // Murder On Bamboo Lane
Yellow crime tape has already been stretched across the narrow street by the time I arrive. My colleagues, on bikes and in black and whites, are already there. Curious onlookers loiter before they are told to move on. In the… Read More ›
Simone St. James // The Broken Girls
Fiona walked slowly into the middle of the room. The hair on the back of her neck felt cold. Suddenly she didn’t want to take pictures. She didn’t want to be here at all anymore. Title: The Broken Girls… Read More ›
Craig Rice // 45 Murderers
That darling old lady next door tenderly spraying her roses…has she just sponged blood from the badly beaten bullet-blasted body of her boarder? Title: 45 Murderers Author: Craig Rice Publisher: Graphic Publishing Company, Inc, 1954 Prolific writer Craig Rice… Read More ›
Catherine Aird // Henrietta Who?
“Where do we go from here, sir?” “That you may well ask, Crosby.” Sloan was irritable and preoccupied as they walked away from Boundary Cottage. “All we’ve got so far is a girl who isn’t who she thinks she is, the… Read More ›
Marty Wingate // The Rhyme of the Magpie
I stood at the door, locking up at the end of the day, and in the window’s reflection I caught a glimpse of something—a sight across the road that froze my blood. There, just beside the red post box at the… Read More ›
Celia Fremlin // The Hours Before Dawn
Miss Brandon, in both voice and appearance, gave the impression of being a successful woman of the world, both critical and self-assured; not at all the sort of person whom one would expect to choose for her home an inconvenient,… Read More ›
Matthew J. Sullivan // Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore
She could see the cemetery of books that had flapped to the floor as Joey had climbed the shelves, and the others he’d shoved aside to create footholds as he threaded the strap through the ceiling, and still others that… Read More ›
Auralee Wallace // Ring In The Year With Murder
“Oh relax,” Freddie groaned. “I need a minute. Besides, I don’t think you killed anyone. The police would have nabbed you by now. It doesn’t look like we made a run for it. Plus…I think you’d be bloodier.” … Read More ›
Marian Babson // The Twelve Deaths of Christmas
“It may not be that simple.” Iris spoke from the top of the ladder, where she’d been taking advantage of Maude Daneson’s inattention to redistribute the tinsel as she saw fit. “He may be perfectly normal most of the time,… Read More ›
