Review - Mystery Weekly Magazine - October 2018

This is the annual Sherlock Holmes special, which appears every October.

We begin with Michael Mallory’s tale ‘The Inimitable Affair’ which cleverly has Holmes and Watson dealing with blackmail, an ex-actress called Ellen Ternan and a certain Charles Dickens. Enjoyable, indeed.

Next is ‘The Very First Detective: The Killing Stone’ by Nik Morton, which is a pastiche concerning one prehistoric Olmes and his narrator, Otsun, based on ‘a series of controversial prehistoric paintings on stone tablets recently discovered in a secret cave complex in the Pyrenees’. A great appropriate cover by Peter Habjan.

A non-fiction piece by Bruce Harris interestingly analyses an incident in A Study in Scarlet.

A non-Holmes tale is ‘The Secrets of Skin’ by Thomas K Carpenter, set in ancient Rome, where the obese magistrate Ovid is placed in the unenviable position involving politics and theft. Some excellent humour in this story!

Tim McDaniel’s ‘A Death in Tadcaster’ is homage to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, concerning one Miss Dalyrimple, with a neat twist.

The prolific Holmsian S Subramnian’s contribution, ‘The Beginning of the Final Problem’ is just that, a precursor to the Holmes story ‘The Final Problem’, and it’s well done.

Lastly, Peter DiChellis provides a ‘you solve it’ short piece, ‘Treasure Cave’ – you’ll get the solution next issue, however.

Available on Amazon.

Mystery Weekly Magazine - June 2018

Six crime stories, all varied in setting, characterisation and period, from a Canadian publisher, available on Amazon for under a fiver.   

The cover story ‘Lady Dick’ by Tony Parker is set in the 1950s, when two post-war OSS female operatives are working as private eyes. Present tense relating to the past – ‘We ranged through occupied Europe like angels of death. We owned the night.’ Some great lines, quite slick. 

Next up is a switch, ‘A Ship called Pandora’ by Melodie Campbell, a science fiction outing, a Witness Protection system run by two hard cases, transporting their human cargo to the outer reaches of space for their protection. A nice twist ending. 

‘Mop Jockey’ by Michael Ayoob is a raw tale told in first and third person about a cleaner with a deadly difference.   

John H. Dromey’s ‘A Detour down Memory Lane’ is a lighthearted investigation into a John Doe’s death. I liked the line ‘a snot rag of prevarications’ meaning ‘a tissue of lies’. [The editor in me will forgive the use of ‘pouring’ instead of ‘poring’ – ‘pouring over a dusty ledger’ (p50)]. A likeable team, lawyer Stephanie and investigator Molly. 

The story ‘Stars’ by Peter W.J. Hayes is a hard-nosed gangster tale where the anti-hero Tank learns that good or bad, lives are transient. 

I found the last story highly enjoyable: ‘The Motor Court’ by Jennifer Collins Moore, where a body is found in a dumpster and two women, usually at loggerheads, reluctantly combine forces to discover the perpetrator. Good dynamic between octogenarian Betty and the owner of the motor court, Eleanor.

If you like crime shorts, try this magazine. Contrary to its title, it's monthly...

Review - Mystery Weekly July 2018

This monthly magazine is published in Canada – both e-book and paperback – and contains six mystery short stories and a puzzle tale in its 78 pages.

For writers, it’s a paying market – http://mysteryweekly.com/submit.asp

For readers, it offers an interesting selection of crime tales, some with humour and wit, others with a darker tone. Nothing too graphic. 

While I enjoyed all the stories in this issue, I particularly liked the cover story ‘Fader’s Crates’ by Caroline Misner, a fairly long poignant tale with good description and style. Leslie Elman’s ‘No Quarters’ offered up a suspense story set in a laundromat, cleverly done. Peter DiChellis’s ‘Locked Tight’ was a locked room (though not quite) mystery laced with humour.

Available from Amazon here

 

The Very First Detective - Mystery Weekly October 2018

  

At the cutting edge of crime fiction, Mystery Weekly Magazine presents original short stories by the world’s best-known and emerging mystery writers. The stories we feature in our monthly issues span every imaginable subgenre, including cosy, police procedural, noir, whodunit, supernatural, hardboiled, humour, and historical mysteries. Evocative writing and a compelling story are the only certainty.
Get ready to be surprised, challenged, and entertained--whether you enjoy the style of the Golden Age of mystery (e.g., Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle), the glorious pulp digests of the early twentieth century (e.g., Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler), or contemporary masters of mystery.

In this issue: In our cover feature, “The Very First Detective: The Killing Stone” by Nik Morton, a series of controversial prehistoric paintings on stone tablets recently discovered in a secret cave complex in the Pyrenees reveals the workings of the very first detective.

In “The Inimitable Affair” by Michael Mallory, Sherlock Holmes works to prevent a scandal that could rock the very foundation of Victorian England by destroying the reputation of one of the era's most respected and beloved figures, who cannot defend himself.
“The Beekeeper’s Dilemma” by Eric B. Ruark: faced with minding his own business or not, the old beekeeper proves that old habits die hard.
“A (Deliberately) Tangled Skein” by Bruce Harris, a non-fiction piece, explores the first Sherlock Holmes story “A Study in Scarlet,” whereby Dr. Watson intentionally deceives the reader by altering the narratives of two key characters.
“The Secrets Of Skin” by Thomas K. Carpenter—the saga continues—in ancient Alexandria, Magistrate Ovid must solve an unusual crime.
“A Death In Tadcaster” by Tim McDaniel: what if a Miss Marple-type of detective is not as sweet and innocent as she seems?
The Beginning Of The Final Problem” by S. Subramanian, presents a locked-room mystery, with a brief pre-history of Holmes's arch-enemy, in which a young Bertrand Russell (imported from Cambridge to London for the purposes of the story) is featured in a cameo role.
 

Available now on AMAZON

Writing market - Mystery Weekly Magazine

Here’s a paying market for writers of mysteries: Mystery Weekly Magazine.

The magazine is a labour of love for the husband and wife team of Publisher Charles F. Carter and Editor Kerry. The magazine website is http://www.mysteryweekly.com/ You can download a copy to your Kindle or get the paperback version from Amazon. You can submit stories via email.

In March Mystery Weekly Magazine was spotlighted in the American periodical, The Writer

Here’s an excerpt of that article, which just happens to mention my story due to appear later this year:

‘The Carters read submissions all year long, making detailed notes for writers who request feedback. They promote their authors widely, publishing excerpts and links to Mystery Weekly’s stories via email, the journal’s website, and social media.

‘One such author is writer and illustrator Nik Morton, whose story “The Very First Detective: The Killing Stone” will be published in the magazine’s Sherlock Holmes special issue, October 2018.

‘“It’s a prehistoric Holmes and Watson pastiche featuring Olmes and Otsun (Otsun is Olmes’s sidekick as well as being the clan’s medicine man),” Kerry explains. “Aside from being well-written, it has a unique setting, which makes it especially entertaining. We don’t get many submissions that cross genres, so any mysteries with fantasy, western, or speculative treatments definitely earn extra points.”’

https://www.writermag.com/2018/03/28/literary-spotlight-mystery-weekly/

Go for it!