| Chief Editor Tony Burton |
SAMPLE COPY The orange links work in the real thing. |
Editor Intern Reviews Editor |
Welcome to the twenty-sixth issue of the Crime and Suspense
ezine, the ezine for lovers of short crime, mystery and suspense
fiction.
This issue's theme is "Weather or Not" and our stories deal with a crime, suspense or mystery situation where the weather is a major player. I don't know where you live, but lately the weather has been a major player in my life even in the real world! It's not surprising that it can be a part of how crime happens or how criminals are caught.
We continue with the international trend for Crime and Suspense. Alison M. Pearce lives in Australia and Sudip Ghosh lives in Manchester in the United Kingdom.
Our authors for this issue are James C. Clar, Conda V. Douglas, Peg Herring, Michael Mallory, Alison M. Pearce, Kevin R. Tipple and Rochelle Weidner. In addition to our fiction authors, we also have articles from Lauri Brett and Sudip Ghosh. Lauri gives us a verbal snapshot of prolific author Jessica Speart, and Sudip has interesting and helpful research information for the crime writers in the audience.
In the review department, we have THE SEX CLUB by L.J. Sellars reviewed by Kevin Tipple, THE MORTAL GROOVE by Ellen Hart reviewed by Peggy Jaegly, A RIVER TO DIE FOR by Radine Trees Nehring and THE CROWS by Maris Soule both reviewed by Wil Emerson, and Larry W. Chavis gives us his reviews of both CUT TO THE BONE by Shane Gericke and STINGY JACK by R. Scott Taylor.
Lastly, we have an audio interview with Michele Martinez, conducted by Chief Editor Tony Burton.
You can learn more about these contributors and authors in the Rogues' Gallery.
New improved payment rates for stories, including audio stories.
Check the Guidelines page for details.
Malice Domestic XX |
Harriette Austin Writers' Conference |
Crime Fest 2008 |
Randy Kandel edited this collection of twenty-one stories by authors of Greater New York. If you'd like the copy I have to give away, email me and put the words NEW YORK STYLE in the subject line. From all the emails I have received by April 1, I will draw one name and send that person the book by post.
NEWS FLASH!
I just learned that two of the stories in MURDER NEW YORK STYLE have been nominated for Agatha Awards for the upcoming Malice Domestic con. The stories are: "Casino Gable" by Nan Higginson and "Death Will Clean Your Closet" by Elizabeth Zelvin.
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Karen Kavanaugh and Margaret Searles edited this collection of twenty-one stories, showing how danger lurks everywhere, even when we think we are secure. We are NEVER SAFE. If you would like the copy I have to give away, email me and put the words NEVER SAFE in the subject line. From all the emails I have received by April 1, I will draw one name and send that person the book by post.
Sorry, these books will only be sent to ezine subscribers from the United States (postal costs, you know!)
Review of A RIVER TO DIE FOR -- Radine Trees Nehring creates a suspenseful story in a refreshing, backwoods Ozark setting. Noted for writing about unique people, places and events, the Arkansas native places Carrie and Henry, a newly-married golden age couple, along the banks of Buffalo Nation River to weave her story....
Review of THE SEX CLUB --Despite a cover billing and a back-cover blurb which proclaim “the debut novel featuring Detective Wade Jackson,” he is only part of the story. The main focus of the novel, which follows a number of characters, each a clichéd stereotype is, Kera Kollmorgan, a nurse at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Eugene, Oregon....
We'd love to see one of your stories for a future issue of Crime and Suspense! Check out the themes and guidelines!
To subscribe to the Crime and Suspense ezine ($12 per year) go HERE.
Review of STINGY JACK -- Irish legend tells us of a tight-fisted drunkard named Stingy Jack who twice tricked Old Scratch himself, forcing the Devil to relinquish all claim to Jack’s soul. In so doing, however, he found himself shut out of heaven and hell, doomed to wander with a coal from the Devil’s hoof to light his way....
Review of THE CROWS -- P.J. Benson confronts a major problem during tax season and it isn’t with the IRS. P.J., the accountant, finds a dying man in her living room. Will her home-based business have to be run in jail? It looks like it when Detective Wade Kingsley names her as his number one suspect. Neighbors, who should come to her rescue, prove to be less than forthright. They have their own dark secrets....
Review of THE MORTAL GROOVE -- Ellen Hart artfully weaves a fast-paced story illuminating how the horrors of conflict, whether based in emotions or war, form invisible tethers from past actions to present life. Her tale begins as a long-held secret begins to unravel.
In order to help a friend, Jane Lawless attempts to solve the cold case murder of a young woman who died ten years ago....
Jessica Speart's Animal MADnetism -- Driven by the desire to “write about something that really fuels me, that makes me angry,” author Jessica Speart turned a mad passion for wildlife politics into the creation of ten mystery novels, set in exotic natural locales like Georgia’s Gold Coast and “the real” Hawaii....
Where to Look for Forensic Information on the 'Net -- The true genius of Sherlock Holmes arose from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s clinical obsession with detail. Crime-writing as a genre, demands both precision as well as a strong sense of intuitive logic on the technical side of things. For new writers, the Internet awaits with its wealth of forensic resources to be put to creative use.
Are you an Author? Join BookTour for FREE and EASY promotional tactics!
Gary Hoffman's story, "Turkey Fry" was selected as the Readers' Choice story for the January/February issue of Crime and Suspense, and Gary has received his t-shirt.
Here's a picture of Gary modeling his shirt. (Yes, all you folks who are freezing--that picture was taken in Florida where it's nice and warm!)
Twice Killed by Rochelle Weidner
Outside the window, snow enfolded the landscape like a giant meringue. Winifred saw the garage roof as a lumpy white loaf of bread, and smaller loaves were cars that didn’t make it into suburban garages. Round bumps fanned out at the end of her driveway, garbage cans, transformed into picturesque icing swirls in the rolling landscape of dazzling white and stark blue shadows. Tiny footprints danced across the crystalline snow.
Don't Touch the Snowman by Michael Mallory
The cruiser door closed with the muted thud of metal exposed to twenty below zero. Deputy Sheriff Brad Chase considered the dilapidated bungalow at the end of the driveway, barely visible through the driving snow. The wind-whipped crystals stung his eyes. Lowering his head, he tramped across the white dunes to the front yard. Winter in northern Minnesota; you had to love it.
Blink of an Eye by Conda V. Douglas
In Singapore, a day of murder resembled a monsoon day. It began bright and easy, with no hint of the storm to come. The first wisp of dark cloud appeared when I sat on my glasses. Before the day ended a storm of murder roared through my life.
I yelped when I sat on my glasses.
“Is a problem?” Anna said. On her way to the clothesline, she poised a basket of wet laundry on her plump hip.
“I took off my glasses to do hot splices,” I said, “and now look.” I held up the glasses, the frames twisted. “Now, I can’t focus on the screen of my editing machine.”
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The Blizzard and Mrs. Beard by Peg Herring
I slid the holdup note and a plain cloth bag across the counter toward the teller and watched her professional smile turn to a grimace of fear. “Put $10,000 in the bag or I’ll shoot the place up good.” I was proud of the note: succinct but definitely informative.
The woman looked fearfully at me, or rather at the persona I presented. A heavily padded overcoat made me look twenty pounds heavier, cotton balls in my cheeks rounded my face to a moon, smoky-tinted glasses hid my eyes, and a dark wig with a knit cap pulled over it covered my real hair.The Clock is Ticking and So Are We by Kevin R. Tipple
Thwack!
“If I see one more of those. . . things hit the window, you boys have had it! You hear me?”
Yellow slime from their latest toy dripped down the glass of the closed window. Something else to clean up. That is if I could get to it before the water was cut off for my area in a couple of hours like it had been every afternoon from one to three the last three weeks.
“Yeah, sure, Dad,” one of the kids yelled through the closed glass.
Heavy sheets of rain pounded against the living room windows in a monotonous tattoo. The river that passed by the old farmhouse had swollen dramatically over the last twenty-four hours, finally breaking its banks earlier in the morning, cutting off the roads back to civilization.
‘Quite ironic when you think about it,’ Yasmine murmured as she swung her flashlight down the stairs leading to the gloomy cellar.
‘What is?’ Austin asked, following her carefully down the rotting stairs.
‘Well, it was during a flood that the murder supposedly occurred and now here we are, ninety years later, trapped in a flood and trying to solve the mystery.’
| Crime and Suspense is pleased to offer for your listening enjoyment (gosh, I've always wanted to say that!) an interview with well-known author Michele Martinez. Her fourth novel in the Melanie Vargas series, NOTORIOUS, was released on February 26, 2008. Melanie kindly consented to spend time on the phone with me in mid-February, in order to have this available to you in the March/April issue. I know you'll find Michele's comments and responses as interesting and entertaining as I did. And I also hope you'll take a moment to visit The Lipstick Chronicles, where Michele regularly blogs along with Harley Jane Kozak, Nancy Martin, Sara Strohmeyer and Elaine Viets, as well as occasional guest bloggers. |  |
Interview with Michele Martinez, February 2008
(The interview is in .MP3 format and lasts about 28 minutes.)
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