Glass Beach, by Michael Bracken

 

"Glass Beach," by Michael Bracken, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2026.

This is the twelfth appearance in this space by my friend and fellow SleuthSayer.  

One of my favorite mystery stories is "Witch's Money," by John Collier.  In spite of the title it does not involve the supernatural, but tells how a small European village is turned inside out by the arrival of a (relatively) wealthy American. Bracken's story reminds me of Collier's.

The story takes place near Fort Bragg, California in the early 1970s.  The witch's money in this case is a strongbox full of cash, the loot from the robbery of a lumber company payroll a decade earlier. It is discovered in a dump by Patrick, our teenage narrator, and his fairly hostile stepfather Cush.

They hope to keep the find secret but, inevitably, the ripples start to spread, involving first Patrick's best friend, whose mother works at a bank and knows how difficult will be to  make the money safe to spend.  As complications arise and more people get involved our heroes discover just how difficult easy money can be.  

Terrific story. 

Dear Mr. Townsend, by E.A. Aymar

 

 "Dear Mr. Townsend," by E.A. Aymar, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2026.

 This is the second appearance by Aymar in my Best Of column. It's a very quirky story.

First, it is epistolary,  consisting of emails to Hank Townsend from many sources. Second, it keeps shifting between the comic and the tragic.  That can mean failure in a story but Aymar makes it work.

The comic is very comic.  For example, Townsend gets email from his former attorney who is now disbarred and running a business called LegalishAdvice: When it just needs to be plausible. 

But he is also receiving email from a mental health counselor who doesn't seem to be doing him much good, and a company called Patroit Handguns which ends each note with "Shoot your shot!"  And then there are hilarious but scary notes from a customer relations guy who sends him threats.

In other words, Townsend has issues, some of his own making.  He is trying to better his messy situation and you can't help but root for him... 

  

 

Love is Blue, by Lawrence Maddox

 "Love is Blue," by Lawrence Maddox, in in Tennis Noir, edited by John Shepphird, Level Best Books, 2026.

This is my friend Lawrence Maddox's third appearance in this column.  It tells the woeful tale of Marvin Stang a film editor, who has a gambling problem.  Well, as he sees it he has a problem with a bookie, but one thing leads to another, doesn't it?

He is trying to earn some   quick money doing a vanity project for Angelika Blueler, an over-the-hill tennis great, who wants to make a video of her glory days.  But Blue is not easy to get along with.

Two complications pile on: Los Angeles happens to be on fire and Blue wants Marvin's help in dealing with a blackmailer.  Specifically she wants to get at the blackmailer's stash of filthy pictures which happen to be in the part of L.A. which happens to be, did I mention, on fire.

What could possibly go wrong?

You will have a lot of fun finding out.

Hard Luck Penny, by Scott McKinnon

 "Hard Luck Penny," by Scott McKinnon, in The Yard, February 15, 2026.

I think this is the first time a first story made my best-of list since 2023. 

“So,” Penny says, “do you guys get a commission every time you flash a weapon, or is it a contractual obligation?”

Penny has been kidnapped.  She doesn't seem to be taking very seriously. 

The three bad guys work for Moe and Moe is mad at her cousin.

Penny stares up at him. “Let me guess, bad Yelp review?”

Being suspenseful and funny at the same time is a good trick.  Penny and McKinnon pull it off.

The Right to Lose, by Wil Medearis

"The Right to Lose," by Wil Medearis, in Tennis Noir, edited by John Shepphird, Level Best Books, 2026.

It's unusual when my best-of-the-week twice in a row is back-to-back stories from the same source, but here we are.

A man, down on his luck, meets a beautiful, rich woman, who convinces him to break the law.

Sound familiar?  It is the basic plot of Noir Fiction.  To make it memorable an author has to come up with something new.  Medearis succeeds. 

Our down-on-his-luck guy is Millar, who was a tennis pro but he didn't succeed and now he isa tennis pro at a country club. "The status of my preferred sport was clear, third in line behind golf and single malt scotch."

 The beautiful woman is Angie, a thirty-year-old woman who has moved back in with her parents who live at the club.  She has ben systematically robbing the houses of her neighbors. "To Angie, it was all psychological, or political, I couldn't keep it straight, her smoldering resentment."

Now she wants to make her biggest heist ever and she needs Millar's help.  He doesn't want to do it, but ne really needs the  money.

So far, so standard noir.  But there is a clever surprise waiting for Millar and for us.  

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.

 

The Skies Are Red, by Richie Narvaez

 

"The Skies Are Red," by Richie Narvaez, in On Fire and Under Water, edited by Curtis Ippolito, Rock and a Hard Place Press, 2025.

This is the third appearance in this blog by Narvaez, and a very clever tale it is.

It is an oral history of  a TV series that never aired, told in fragments of interview with the cast and crew.  Criminal Takedown: Climate Change Cops was supposed to be the latest hit spinoff from that hugely successful television empire. (Hmm... What could Narvaez have had in mind?)

This particular show was the brainchild  of Sal Cassady, who had made it big in hippy movies and was a dedicated environmentalist.  He thought that he could change hearts and minds by approaching the issue of climate change through the classic crime format.

Didn't quite work out.  The interviews show us a toxic combination of Hollywood ego, corporate doubletalk, denialism, and just bad (hah) chemistry. Like a lot of the stories in this book this one tends toward the polemic, but it is excellent fun.

 

Night Passage, by Peter W.J. Hayes

 "Night Passage," by Peter W.J. Hayes, in Celluloid Crimes, edited by Deborah Well, Level Short, 2025

 I have a story in this book.  This is the fourth story by Hayes to appear on this blog. 

Doran Black is an insurance investigator in San Francisco. When a warehouse is burned down the usual reasons for such arson don't seem to fit.  Black suspects it was a proof of method test, and the next one will be much worse.  The obvious suspects are the family that own the warehouses.  But which member of the family?

Complicating the matter in an interesting way is that Black is a veteran of World War II and he suffers some remaining trauma which may interfere with his judgment.  A nicely suspenseful tale.  

Poison is the Wind That Blows, by C.W. Blackwell

 "Poison is the Wind That Blows," by C.W. Blackwell, in On Fire and Under Water, edited by Curtis Ippolito, Rock and a Hard Place Press, 2025.

Fighting forest fires is dangerous work.  Our nameless narrator is volunteered to do it because he is in prison for killing a man who was looting his house, and he wants to be a firefighter when he gets out.

But this conflagration is more dangerous than most because Reed, who is in charge of the prisoners, is looting houses.  He wants our hero to join his gang.  If he gets caught, he's due for a longer sentence and no career.  If he refuses, well, "Tragedies happen all the time."

Nicely suspenseful story. 

This Time Oughta Go Different, by Robert Mangeot

 

"This Time Oughta Go Different," by Robert Mangeot, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, September/October 2025.

 This is the sixth appearance in this space by my fellow SleuthSayer.

Mangeot's stories are mostly about character and language.  For example, glom onto this opening paragraph. 

In need of his five o'clock Tanqueray and tonic, a dire need after an all-day mandatory ethics seminar, Vernon took his chances at the Hotel DeLuxa.  Nashville had gone hotter than hell's boiler room, and the DeLuxa offered the lone walkable glimmer of refinement in this South of Broadway wasteland.  A glimmer only.  The DeLuxa was sterile and grayed over, with not one velour cushion to ease Vernon's trick back moaning from the seminar's unforgiving stackable chair.  He'd been non-chargable all week, sidelined, and without much glimmer there on that turning around, either. 

 From this we know the location, the season, the tone, and mostly we know that our protagonist is an ethically-challenged lawyer  down on his luck.   

But wait! The bartender has a mild pain which Vernon is convinced can be stretched into a profitable workman's comp case.  The only problems are that the hotel seems to be mobbed up, the bartender isn't interested in suing, and, uh, she has disappeared.   

Okay, those issues might worry a lesser man than Vernon.  Or a less desperate one. 

Very funny story. 

What Ned Said, by Gary Phillips

 

"What Ned Said," by Gary Phillips, in Hollywood Kills, edited by Adam Meyer and Alan Orloff, Level Short, 2025.

Thanks to Kevin Tipple for catching some typos. 

This is the third time my friend Gary Phillips has appeared in this blog. 

I have said before that stories I like best tend to have at least one of four characteristics: great characters, twist ending, heightened language, or great premise.  We will go back to that.

I learned a new term from this story: grief tech.  As the British would say it is exactly what it says on the tin, meaning it is the use of advanced  technology to help with the mourning process. 

In this story it refers to Ethereal Essence, a company  which uses videos, text messages, and other mementos to create a virtual reality experience between the mourner and the deceased.  The mourner here is Clayton and the deceased is his old friend Ned.  They have a terrific session together - right up to the end when Ned tells his pal that he had been murdered.

And that, my friends, is what I call a great concept. A very enjoyable story.