It’s murder in the worst degree when an executive at a knife factory is killed with its newest product, a curved blade called the tiger claw. Was Sam Park murdered because of the “private project” he was working on, one that threatened to expose dirty secrets? Ominous message fragments only deepen the mystery. Most perplexing of all is why the dead man’s outstretched hand is resting on the open page of a world atlas. Was he naming his killer?All is not as it seems as Detectives Hen...

Even by Hollywood standards, Nora Frost is the stage mother from Hell. Her futile drive to turn her talentless twin sons into child superstars has left figurative bodies strewn throughout Los Angeles. But after Nora hires hapless young private detective Dave Beauchamp to investigate a letter threatening the brothers, the body count begins to mount. It's up to Dave (a recovering lawyer and serious movie buff) to discover why people connected to Nora's crusade are turning up dead, and why so...

It starts for movie buff Dave Beauchamp, L.A.'s most hapless P.I., when the tomato walks into his office. At least that’s how she's dressed. But the woman in the tomato suit is not what she seems...and the restaurant she's promoting, which is owned by a powerful religious cult, harbors a deadly secret. "Aided" by the voices of classic film stars inside his head, Dave struggles to disentangle a web of corruption and murder, or die trying. Both suspenseful and laugh-out-loud funny, Eats to D...

For L.A.’s most uncertain private investigator (and old movie buff) Dave Beauchamp, attending the Hollywood Celebrity Expo should have been Heaven. But it wasn’t, particularly when the show’s stars started turning up dead in highly unusual and personal ways. Before long, Dave finds himself struggling to make sense out of a bizarre case that appears rooted in an unsolved string of murders from the 1980s. Both grippingly suspenseful and laugh-out-loud funny, Dead and In Person! demonstrates ...

Hidden in the desolate woods on the Central California coast, lost to time and memory, is a WPA mural unlike any other created during the 1930s. This one was not simply fashioned from charcoal and paint; it was crafted out of undying evil--the evil of an ancient demonic army called Legion. When structural inspector Jack Hayden stumbles upon the mural in a ruined civic building, he tries to convince himself that it might add to the crumbling structure’s value. But that note of hopefulness i...

The Philippines, 1609.A bad ship. Worse weather. A crew of morons. And the Dutch.Patrick Mallory wanted a quiet life of scholarship, translation, and avoiding situations involving cannons. Instead, his knowledge of Dutch gets him dragged aboard La Corona de Espinas que Carga La Más Gloriosa y Sagrada Cabeza de Nuestro Salvador Inmortal Rey de Reyes Señor de Señores Jesucristo Dios Nuestro, a Spanish vessel with a name longer than its supply list and a crew held together by ...

--Winner Best Independent Book Award: Detective Mystery--Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Killer Nashville International Writers’ ConferenceThe murder of an art expert and the disappearance of a priceless artifact propels Detective Henry Lau into the nebulous world of ancient antiquities. Complicating matters is a parade of dodgy suspects who wouldn’t know a truthful statement if it bit them on the leg. What is the Bronze Dragon? And why do ...

Who would want the director of the Minnesota Valley Zoo dead? Everyone! Anthony Wright made a career of getting what he wanted, whatever the price. When he's murdered and ends up as a late night snack for the zoo's fifteen- foot crocodile, few are shedding any tears.

This issue, we have a locked-room mystery novel, a far-future science-fantasy sword-and-sorcery novel, and 8 shorts featuring everything from dogs to cats to buried skeletons to time travel—and more! Truly, something for everyone.As always, special thanks to our Acquiring Editors, Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, for picking a pair of terrific original tales. And our editorial board—Tom Easton, Ryan Hines, Vicki Erwin, Paula Messina, and Richard Prosch—who patiently read submissio...

We have three original stories this issue—mysteries by Charlie Kondek (thanks to Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken) and M. E. Proctor, plus a science fiction tale by Glenn Dungan.Other mysteries include a great modern tale by Michael Mallory (thanks to Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman) and our mystery novel is a classic by Isabel Ostrander. Of course, there’s also a solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles. On the science fiction front, we have another supernatural tale by John S. Gl...

Our 107th issue has everything you could possibly want: police detectives, spacemen, cats, a man fighting an inner battle against cancer, boy detectives, an abandonned mill chimney, murder in space…. I could go on and on, but that would take all the fun out of it for you!

This issue, we have original mysteries from Eve Fisher (courtesy of Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken), Tony Rothman, and Michael Mallory (courtesy of Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman), plus a classic novel from Arthur B. Reeve (one of his Craig Kennedy scientific detective series). And, of course, we have a solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles.On the science fiction side, we 6 tales instead of our usual 5—largely because Robert F. Young’s is a short-short. Classic stories come f...