Mystery Scene: Issue No. 153

The latest issue of Mystery Scene Magazine—No. 153—is at a newsstand near you. As usual, it is packed, featuring interviews with Jane Harper and John Hart, an article celebrating Mickey Spillane’s 100^th birthday, another celebrating the life and work of Sue Grafton and many others.

It also features my short story review column, “Short & Sweet: Short Stories Considered”. In the column I discuss:

The Realm of the Impossible, edited by John Pugmire and Brian Skupin, is an anthology featuring a brilliant cast of reprinted locked-room mysteries by writers from around the world.

Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1. A welcome addition to the criminal short story market with stories by Michael Bracken, Alan Orloff and others. 

Alive in Shape and Color, edited by Lawrence Block, is the follow up to Block’s 2016 anthology In Sunlight or in Shadow, and like its predecessor the tales are inspired by works of art. It includes stories by David Morrell, Lee Child, Joe R. Lansdale and many others.

The Big Book of the Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett, edited by Richard Layman and Julie M. Rivett, is the first time Dashiell Hammett’s serialized Continental Op stories—the way they appeared in Black Mask Magazine—are together in a single volume.

This issue also includes a single book review by yours truly.

Splintered Silence, by Susan Furlong, is the beginning of a new mystery series starring traveller—more commonly thought of as gypsies by outsiders—and former military police woman Brynn Callahan and her cadaver dog, Wilco, as they try to start over in Bone Gap, Tennessee.

The reviews, except for Black Cat Mystery Magazine, 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.