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.