"What is Your..." by Mat Coward, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2024.
This is the eighth story by Coward to appear in this blog.
Sometimes a writer faces the challenge of finding something new in a formula. But sometimes there is no formula and the writer is producing something sui generis, belonging to no category. Not for the first time, Coward has done the latter.
Our protagonist is an actor, not as young or successful as he would like to be, but with enough fame that he is occasional asked to fill out the type of questionnaires that show up in popular magazines. What is your chief failing? Where are you at your happiest?
He is tired of filling them out and says he is always tempted to answer What is your guilty pleasure? with "Child molestation and fox hunting."
This story takes the form of such a questionnaire and his dry comments on each query and the answers he would like to give.
Is there a crime involved? Oh yes, and the nature will slowly reveal itself in this charming, witty, tale.
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