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Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Mystery Scene - Issue No. 152


The latest issue of Mystery Scene Magazine—No. 152—is at a newsstand near you. As usual, it is packed. It features interviews with James Patterson, Joe Ide and Barbara Ross, an article about Mary Robert Rinehart and many others.
It also features my short story review column, “Short & Sweet: Short Stories Considered”. In the column I discuss:
Down & Out: The Magazine, edited by Rick Ollerman, is a brand new crime fiction magazine with its eye directly on the hardboiled. This introductory issue includes terrific stories by Reed Farrel Coleman, Eric Beetner, and Jen Conley.
The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir,edited by Gary Phillips, is an entertaining, at times humorous, anthology with tales based on the often bizarre conspiracies surrounding Barrack and Michelle Obama. 
The Big Book of Rogues and Villains, edited by Otto Penzler, is an anthology that lives up to its name. It includes a large number of mystery stories, from Victorian to modern and everything in-between, featuring rogues and villains. 
The Usual Santas, is an anthology produced by Soho Crime, and featuring many of its top-selling writers. And each story has an edge of Christmas about it.
This issue also includes four of my book reviews. 
The Prague Sonata by Bradford Morrow, is a lyrical, idea-driven literary mystery that is longer than it should be, but is so beautiful it doesn’t really matter. 
Murder in the Manuscript Room by Con Lehane, is a mystery loaded with working class realities and enough mystery to keep it interesting.
Black Teeth by Zane Lovitt, is the modern (and Australian) take on the noir of yesteryear with a plot built from disappointment, fear and human frailty.
Signal Loss by Garry Disher, is the seventh Australian police procedural featuring Hal Challis and Ellen Destry. And it is a winner.
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.


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