Mystery Scene Issue No. 148

The latest issue of Mystery Scene Magazine—No. 148—is at a newsstand near you. It is MS’s special Holiday Issue and it is packed, as usual. It features a terrific essay on recent legal thrillers by Jon L. Breen, a profile of Ian Rankin, who was slated to be an accountant (a profession close to my heart), and the first part of an essay by Lawrence Block, “How to be a Writer Without Writing Anything,” which I’m using as a manual for my future projects.

It also features my second short story review column, “Short & Sweet: Short Stories Considered.” A column I’m (still) excited about, and, as it turns out a column I am no longer considered as the interim, but as the permanent writer. All of the column reviews are currently only available in the print edition; however, I discuss:

Crimson Snow, edited by Martin Edwards, featuring a slew of Christmas-themed traditional British mystery stories.

The 60^th Anniversary Issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

The October – January issue of Strand Magazine, which, amazingly, includes a never before published story by H. G. Wells.

Lyndsay Faye’s Sherlock Holmes collection The Whole Art of Detection, which will be very well appreciated by Sherlockians.

Issue No. 148 also includes my best of 2016 line up (Shadow Games and Other Sinister Stories of Show Business by Ed Gorman, The Mistletoe Murder by P. D. James, and “The Silent Order of God” by Stephen Ross), and three standalone book reviews I wrote. The titles: World, Chase Me Down by Andrew Hilleman, The Edit by J. Sydney Jones, and The Death of Kings by Rennie Airth. The book reviews are all available at MS’s website:

World, Chase Me Down by Andrew Hilleman is a fictional retelling of the larger than life kidnapper Pat Crowe. Something of a campfire tale with both humor and action.

The Edit by J. Sydney Jones is an intriguing, sometimes ugly story of a convicted Nazi war criminal hiding in a South American country.

The Death of Kings by Rennie Airth is an, at times, slow moving traditional British puzzler.

The reviews are available online at Mystery Scene’s website—click the titles above.

Mystery Scene is available at many newsstands, including Barnes & Noble, and available for order at MS’s website.