"The Barguzin Sable," by Sam Wiebe, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March/April, 2024.
Let's talk Macguffins.
Some people use the word as a synonym for plot device. Red herring? That's a Macguffin. Dying words clue? Another Macguffin.
Wrong. Alfred Hitchcock, who brought the term into storytelling use, had one specific meaning in mind.
A Macguffin is the Thing Everybody Wants: the quest object. Sauron's Ring. The ruby slippers. The Maltese Freaking Falcon.
It can be valuable for many different reasons. There's money or power, obviously, but it could also have sentimental or symbolic meaning. It could also be an object of temptation.
And the great thing is, in one story it can be all those things to different characters.
David Wakeland is a Vancouver P.I. At his mother's request he investigates the home invasion of a neighbor that included her murder and the theft of her precious fur coat, a relic that came over from Russia a century before.
It's a classic private eye investigation in many ways, with complicated family relationships and even includes the private eye getting the traditional bang on the head (although not, in this case, being knocked unconscious.
And, as I said, the sable turns out to mean many things to different people. As one character says "You can't expect common sense from folks who wear weasel." Very clever denouement.
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