The Summer Tournament, by Jason Starr

 "The Summer Tournament," by Jason Starr, in Tennis Noir, edited by John Shepphird, Level Best Books, 2026.

Ah, the first anthology of the year.  How refreshing.   

Most mystery stories center on plot.  Some on dialog.  This one is mostly a character study. 

Alan, the narrator, is a psychotherapist, a husband and a father.  He also likes to sleep with other men's wives.  But his real interest - obsession, really - is tennis.  

It is the late seventies and Alan and his family spend each summer at a tennis camp in the Catskills. Alan is determined to  win the singles championship  for a third time in a row.  And everything, everything, has to bend to his obsession.

"I was a narcissist, but this was one of my best qualities, actually. It meant I was in touch with my needs and desires and had the courage to love myself.  What was so wrong with that?" 

This story is a  lovely combination of psychobabble,  twisted justification, and sports madness.

 

El Artista Fugitivo, by Tom Larsen

 "El Artista Fugitivo," by Tom Larsen, in Black Cat Weekly, #227, 2026.

This is the second story by Larsen to make this list, and it stars the same character.  

Wilson Salinas is a private detective in his native Ecuador.  This story takes place not long after he sets up his business after leaving Seattle where he worked as a chef until alcohol got the better of him.  

His U.S. experience helped him get a new client, an American P.I. named Cabrera who  wants him to find a yankee who has disappeared.  Jefferson Bushnell is an eighty-year-old painter.  Why does Cabrera want to find him? Because Bushnell got the detective's twenty-year-old niece pregnant.

If that sounds suspicious Salinas agrees with you.  But he takes the case and, as usual, finds out that it is not nearly as straightforward as it seems.

This is a fun private eye story.  I have to say there is a goof in the storytelling it that someone should have caught. It doesn't affect the  plot but it is certain to annoy alert readers.

 

Best of 2025

 

I forgot to mention that last week I put up my best stories of the year list at SleuthSayers.  This is year #17, and 18 tales made the list. 

Counting Windows, by V.S. Kemanis

 

 "Counting Windows," by V.S. Kemanis, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, November/December 2025.

 This is the second story by Kemanis to make my list. 

Among the ten thousand rules for writing the proper short story you can find recommendations that you should keep the cast of characters small and the focus tight. Good advice and, like most good advice, there are times to ignore it.

This tale centers on a neighborhood of twelve households which have been been gathering for parties for years.  One family includes Daria, a teenager who suffers from OCD in the form of a germ phobia which makes eating a misery.

Another home includes Melody Wolfe who is found dead in the woods, an apparent suicide.  How do these two relate, and how do the rest of the neighbors connect? That's the interesting part.  

No reader will be surprised by the solution, but watching the characters figure it out is a pleasure. 

Squirrel Day Afternoon, by Gregory Fallis

 

"Squirrel Day Afternoon," by Gregory Fallis, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, November/December 2025.

This is the fifth story by Gregory Fallis to land on my best-of page.

This is a very witty story.

Chonk and Twomey are ex-cops, now private eye partners. They are dining on buttermilk-fried Squirrel nuggets when a potential client calls.  ('Never answer the phone,' Chonk said.")

Robbie Waterman is a privileged jerk with a potentially serious problem.  His disgruntled college student daughter just stole one of his guns.  Well, not stole.  Just borrowed, maybe. He's afraid she may be about to pawn it.  Our heroes are afraid she might have something worse in mind.

This could turn into a nasty story about an active shooter on campus but as it happens Fallis has other ideas.  

There was something smug and self-satisfied bout the [professor's] office that made Chonk want to feed him bugs and flies. He probably didn't deserve to be shot by a disgruntled student, Chonk thought, but it was a close thing.

Like I said, very witty.

The Roosevelt Affair, by Adam Meyer

 "The Roosevelt Affair," by Adam Meyer, in Crimecopia: The Not So Frail Detective Agency, Murderous Ink Press, 2026.

A nice straightforward historical P.I. story with the bonus of real people included among the characters.

It's Albany, New York, 1932. Rosie Perkins, private eye, gets a mysterious and not too friendly summons to the governor's mansion.  Seems the great man was indiscreet with another woman and he and his aides are desperate to learn who took the photographs and get them back.  This is crucial because the governor has big plans for the coming year.

His name, of course, is Franklin Roosevelt.  

Rosie meets with him, then with  wife Eleanor who seems less concerned about her husband's infidelity than his possibly damaged electability.

There will be some surprises along the way to a happy ending.

The Canadian: Death by the Barrel, by J.F. Benedetto

"The Canadian: Death by the Barrel," by J.F. Benedetto, in Black Cat Weekly, #226, 2025. 

This is the second story in this series to make my Best Of pile.

It is a neat historical tale full of, but not overwhelmed by, details of place and people.

It is 1901 and in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion a dozen western powers control Tientsin, China. Our hero is a former Canadian Mounted Police officer, also a veteran of the war.  He happens to be near by when a Dutch sea captain is found drowned i n a barrel of his own beer in his rooms in the British quarter.  

The Englishman investigating the crime is an old enemy who would love to blame it on the Canadian so he has to get to the bottom of things more complicated than the bottom of a beer barrel.  It turns out that the sea captain is anything but an innocent sailor and the story makes some clever twists and turns.

Level Up, by Shawn Reilly Simmons

 "Level Up," by Shawn Reilly Simmons in The Most Dangerous Games, edited by Deborah Lacy, Level Short, 2025.

 I have a story in this book.

 This is the third appearance in this column for Simmons.

Natalie is a PhD student in Medieval Literature.  No surprise then that she is in desperate financial straits.  The big surprise is when she receives an invitation from DARE+ that begins:

Congratulations! You've been selected for an exclusive opportunity to earn real money through fun challenges.  Based on your profile, you could earn up to $500 in your first week. Interested? 

Interested, sure.  Skeptical, absolutely. What kind of scam is this?

The first challenge is, yes, easy, and the money arrives as promised.  But after the first bite of the apple things always get complicated, don't they?

A nicely suspenseful story that heads in a direction I did not expect. 

The God You Save May Be Your Own, by Michael Thomas Ford

 "The God You Save May Be Your Own," by Michael Thomas Ford, in Black Cat Weekly, 224, 2025.

Every December brings us a Christmas-themed fantasy mystery or two.  Most of them center on Santa Claus, logically enough.  This one, not so much.

The narrator is the mayor of New Orleans liaison.  Liaison with who, you ask logically enough. But in this case it's more of a what then a who.

Poppy is an Elder God (think Lovecraft's world) who has dwelled in NOLA for over a century.  She manifests as a nine-year-old girl but in her real form is somewhat more tentacle-y.

As the story begins someone has killed and dismembered the mayor.  Someone may be trying to frame Poppy.  Or maybe something even more diabolical is going on.

A very entertaining tale.  The funniest line is the only reference to Lovecraft, which I won't spoil for you.

Picture Palace Blues, by Colin Campbell

"Picture Palace Blues," by Colin Campbell, in Celluloid Crimes, edited by Deborah Well, Level Short, 2025.

I have a story in this book.

This is a character-driven piece and the character is McNulty, formerly a cop in Yorkshire, now a dedicated fan of old movies.  He had his friend, retired criminal Donk, are catching a Bogart double feature at a revival house when McNulty's copper instincts tell him something is wrong.  

Turns out some bad guys have robbed the box office. But surely there isn't enough cash in there to be worth the gang's attention.  So what's their real goal?  

Fun to watch McNulty figure it out.  More fun to see him thwart the plan.