The Care and Feeding of Houseplants by Art Taylor - Ellery QueenMystery Magazine, March/April 2013

Infidelity.  Watch out.

Felicia is married to a timid man.  She has an affair with Roger who is fitter, stronger more of a man than her husband. 

Never underestimate what a man is capable of.

I did not read this in one sitting but nibbled at it all day.  It is so well written that I kept thinking about it as I was working around the house.  The characters and situation were fresh; Roger's confidence and arrogance - made me dislike him intensely. 

Taylor is an accomplished short story writer.

Art Taylor

The Return of Crazy Horse by Clark Howard - Ellery Queen MysteryMagazine, March/April 2013

Nelson Clay, assistant curator of the Great Plains Native American Museum is approached by a young girl who claims to know where the burial site of Chief Crazy Horse is.

On one level there is the story of how to prove the authenticity of the claim, then there is the conflict of nepotism between Clay and his boss.

As the story progresses interesting relationships develop to a satisfying twist ending.

This is my second encounter with Howard's writing and I look forward to more.

Clark Howard

Find the Woman by Ross MacDonald

For a first effort and for its time, the story was pretty good; although the murder itself was a bit far-fetched.

Other than an unlikely MO the characters were well written and the story had any easy flow.  Lew Archer himself did not stand out much in this one.
 

This is the first Lew Archer story that was published in the June 1946 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine under his real name, Kenneth Millar.

Information on Ross MacDonald can be found HERE.

Magazine giveaway.

Now that I've read and reviewed this issue of EQMM I'd like to give it to anybody who's interested.

Free.

Just email me or leave a comment and I'll mail it to you. It's in good shape, as a reading copy, but it is in no condition to be called collectible. Still, I'd like to give the issue a good home - it's yours for the asking.

Cheers.

Blood in the Water by Janice Law

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

Now THIS story I liked.  It was another life insurance scam tale involving an indebted securities trader a beautiful babe and the sinking of a yacht.

The cold, cold ending made for a perfect closure to this issue of EQMM.

The author's website is HERE

Hank's Tale by Dorothy Salisbury Davis

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

Set in the hills of Rural Whatever, USA, Hank is the local lawyer who tells the story of two strong headed and influential women in the town they live in.

God, I really wasn't paying attention to this story. I found it boring just reading about local gossip; who hates whom because of some slight done years before.

There was a killing from way before this story begins and stories about pastors, baptisms and traveling evangelicals.

This was simply not for me. I kept putting it down and should have just skipped it but I was always just a few pages from finishing, so I kept reading it.

If you like stories a bout human relationships then you'll surely like this one.

Information about the author can be found HERE

The Bones by Peter Turnbull

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

A nice, straight-ahead police procedural set in the UK countryside.

I found the story a bit short, actually. But to be fair it had the feeling of being close to how investigations really happen. It's about how you approach the questioning of suspects and the timing of the interviews that really matter.

I'd be very happy to read one of Turnbull's novels.

Very believable and well told.

Information on the author can be found HERE

The Extortionately Dear Departed by David Williams

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

A clever insurance scam that goes wrong, then ...

This was a well constructed story with a couple clever twists. Set in France and England a couple, in financial stress, cook up a plan to collect the Husband's life insurance benefits.

You can find out about the author HERE (Scroll to the top of the page when it loads)

Sadly, Williams died in September of 2003.  LINK

The Big Shuffle by Clark Howard - short story review

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

This was a very good mystery from the point of view of an insurance claims investigator.

Jack Nash is sent to Nevada to investigate the crash of a plane on Ghost Lake. His boss smells something fishy about it and wants to deny the claim of $4 Million for the death of the passenger, an executive for an oil company.

Clark Howard has been writing short fiction for decades and has won many awards in the process. You are in very sure hands when reading his story.

Nicely done.

The author has no website of his own but you can get a list of his works HERE

The Hunters by J. F. Freedman

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

This was a quiet, menacing story. True noir.

Two brothers go on a hunting trip. The hunt seems unrelated to the story that is told after they return.

I was disappointed with the ending; it turned out exactly how I thought it would. I kept hoping there would be some kind of twist.

But that was what made it so cold, so calculated. (A twist would have been nice thought.)

You can find the author's website HERE

The Authentic Rose by Terence Faherty - short story review

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

Set in the 1950's. Hollywood Private Investigator Scott Elliot is sent to New Mexico to authenticate a painting purchased by a wealthy client.

Elliot walks into a complex web of emotions, passion and loyalties and in thrown in to a murder investigation along the way.

I found the story well constructed and I especially enjoyed the sense of place it created. I could smell the dust, feel the heat, see the washed out quality to the light under a burning sun and feel the relief of a cool tavern and cold beer.

The author's website is HERE

Round Trip by Rail by Gwen Davenport - short story review

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

I liked this story quite a bit. It had a gentle, light touch that I found easy to read and that I wanted to come back to it each time I put it down.

It's the story of a man stuck in a bad marriage and how he chooses to escape it.

One day he just disappears.

Sadly Gwen Davenport died in 2002


As far as I can tell this story was never collected in book form.

Whatever it Takes by Benjamin M. Schutz - short story review

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

The author describes it as "Hardy Boys for the nineties."

And that's a pretty apt feel to the story. Sean and Matthew are a process servers who go about town handing out subpoenas and court summons.

The are pretty good at it too; we get to see all the clever ways they " get their man."

In an effort to make some extra money, the boys are allowed to go through The Icebox; literally a shoe box filled with papers that were never successfully served.

They take on the case of a deadbeat dad who's not paid his child support in years.

It becomes a challenging moral situation for Sean and Matthew - one with a satisfying end.

Sadly the author passed away in 2008


This story was collected in the book Mary, Mary, Shut the Door.

The Collusionists by Scott Mackay - short story review

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

This was a satisfying read about a woman who is wrongfully charged with the murder of her husband.  The cast of characters include; the artist through who's eyes we see the story, his brother who had an affair with the woman charged and the traumatized daughter.

The clues are there and were put together cleverly.  Loved it.

You can find the story only in this issue of EQMM

The author's website is HERE

Let's Get Lost by Lawrence Block - short story review

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
September/October 2000

Matthew Scudder in the early days; still on the force, still married and still drinking, hires himself out as a "fixer."

I'm always impressed at the ease Block can tell a story.

Lucky you, you can read this story for free on the Mulholland Books Website.

Part One

Part Two

The author's website is HERE

Season of the Camel by Edward D. Hoch - short story reveiw

Season of  the Camel 

by

Edward D. Hoch

Combine a retired British Intelligence agent on vacation in Egypt, Camel fights in Turkey and stolen plans for a top secret microchip and you have a rather interesting story.

As far as I can tell this story was not collected.

You can read more about Hoch HERE

Murder in a Time of Siege - short story review

Murder in a Time of Siege

 by

 Marjorie Eccles.   

Set in the town of Mafeking, 1899, during the Boer War this is a nice bit if historical fiction steeped in British resolve.

More a tale than a mystery one can try to solve while reading, it still had a satisfying puzzle to it.

This story was collected in:

Past Crimes: Perfectly Criminal 3

The book is sadly out of print but you can still find copies in the used book market; you can start your search HERE. 

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Read It.

I finished reading a back issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine from June 2004.  Here is the cover and the table of contents.  Notice the story form Stephen King.

As always just click on the picture to get a larger image.

That's all for now.