One For Yes, Two For No, by Will Ferguson

 "One For Yes, Two For No," by Will Ferguson, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, July/August 2026.

Let's  talk a bit about  Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, where this story appeared. It was founded in 1956 and was inspired less by the Master's movies than by his popular TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Like that show it has always favored humor, suspense, and twist endings.

There is a famous episode of that show called "Breakdown" in which Joseph Cotton plays the paralyzed victim of a car accident, trying desperately to convince the hospital staff that he is conscious. 

And that's close to what happens in this story, but Ferguson adds several layers of complication.  Mike, the man apparently in a persistent vegetative state, is a cop and he was shot while trying to help a waitress who witnessed a murder.  He can feel nothing except the tube in his throat. All he can do is listen and think.  What he hears gives him plenty allowed to think about, and he has crucial decisions to make.  

An excellent story of suspense. 

The Mystery of Sea and Sky, by Charles John Harper

 "The Mystery of Sea and Sky," by Charles John Harper, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May/June 2026

This is the second story by this author to be reviewed here, if C.J. Harper is who I think he is. This story is a lot cuddlier than that other one.

Although our protagonist would hate be called cuddly. Skyler's a fifteen-year-old kid with all the grumpiness  and mood swings you'd expect.  Worse, his mother has flown him from their home in beautiful California to Minneapolis to meet "my thousand-year-old British-- or was it Irish? -- grandfather. A boomer so cringe?"

Seamus, the boomer in question, is a private eye and he's especially glad to meet his grandson that day because his assignment is to find a fifteen-year-old  girl and he figures Skyler has a better chance of figuring out where the girl would go.

And Skyler, with alternating moods of reluctance and enthusiasm, does figure out the vital clue.  It's a fun story. 

A Regular Guy, by Chris L. Robinson

"A Regular Guy," by Chris L. Robinson, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May/June 2026

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My whole career has consisted of a little street-fighting, then security, then debt collection, and for a while now,this thing, which is pretty much the top of the heap for a guy with a resume like mine.

Nice writing, that.

As you can probably guess our protagonist is a hit man, doing jobs for a local mob.  But his work often takes him out of town, and this story finds him in New Orleans.  So there is a killing to take care of but what most interests "Mr. Smith," and  me, is a brand-new type of crime he discovers.   I won't go into more detail than that.  It's a fun story.

The Orient Club, by Robin Hazard Ray

 

"The Orient Club," by Robin Hazard Ray, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, May/June 2026.

You are probably familiar with the phrase TMI, meaning Too Much Information.  Imagine a stranger telling you about their kidney operation, or love life. Or both.

In the world of fiction we usually call TMI an expository dump. Here is an undigested heap of information you, the reader, needs to know.

But what about Too Little Information? Sometimes the writer deliberately doesn't explain things, forcing the reader to make the last connections for themselves.  This is great if you do make the connections, annoying if you don't. 

In this story Ray does a little of both and makes it work.

Carol is an older woman, living in Boston, and the bane of her neighborhood is the Orient Club, a forlorn building that has stood untouched since it partially burned down two years earlier.  One day she sees a young man - just turned 18 - named Brandon who thinks he is now the owner of the property.  Brandon was a foster kid with a complicated history.

Carol tells him about the equally complicated history of the Orient Club which, over the decades, has had many owners and many different businesses   And here we have our expository dump, which Ray makes fascinating.

Brendan moves into Carol's house as they try to figure out the mysteries of the Orient Club, especially the fact that someone is paying the city taxes on the property to keep it from being torn down.  I don't mean to suggest that the two are comfortable partners.  The relationship between them is one of the stories best elements.

One night Brandon did not come home from the restaurant. When he finally opened the door late the next day, Carol was waiting. She called him an ingrate and graphically described the kind of sexually transmitted diseases he was likely to pick up. He listened impassively until she was done, then he took the house keys out of his jeans pocket and jingled them.

"Where did [your son] leave his? The mantlepiece? I'm eighteen and fuck off."

But this unlikely team pursues the mystery and -- we don't immediately understand how Carol figures out the answer.  The reader has to work that out for themselves.  And you will have fun doing it.