No Property in a Witness, by Mat Coward

 "No Property in a Witness," by Mat Coward, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, September/October 2026.

This is the eleventh story by Coward to make it to this column.

There really ought to be some way, Robert thought, in which a criminal client could communicate guilt or innocence to their solicitor or barrister... Perhaps it would help if there were some sort of secret handshake? One squeeze for guilty, two for "No seriously, this time I mean it, genuinely not guilty."

As you may have guessed Robert is a barrister facing a shocking problem: his client, a long-time bank robber, apparently didn't commit the one he on trial for.  This throws Robert's entire planned defense into a tizzy.

Coward is a very witty writer, as this one demonstrates.

Treat or Trick, by Mark Thielman

 

"Treat or Trick," by Mark Thielman, in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2026.

 This is the twelfth appearance in this column by my fellow SleuthSayer. 

Ollie is at a job interview:

"You're here because Grinder recommended you. How do you know The Grind?"

"From around."

"He says you met at juvie.  That right?"

"My records are sealed so that I might move forward in life without the stigma," Ollie recited.

"You want the job, or don't you?"

"We met at juvie." 

 In that bit of chatter we learn a lot about the situation and also the personality of the protagonist. That personality will be a major point of the story since we don't see in his head and we want to figure out how he is reacting to  what's going on.

What's going on is a suspiciously easy job with a cooperative boss.  ROOK is a nonprofit that tries to improve the lives of young people.  And all Ollie needs to do this late October, is give out candy  to all the kids who come to the door.  What could be simpler? 

Do you smell something fishy?  Ollie certainly does.  And we read along, wondering what he plans to do about it.  There are nice clues along the way.  A witty, twisty tale. 

 

 

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, by Joseph Goodrich

 "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," by Joseph Goodrich, in What the World Needs Now: Mystery Stories Inspired by the Music of Burt Bacharach, edited by Martin Edwards, Level Best Books, 2026.

So, what's a private eye story?

Glad you asked. A simple answer would be a story in which a major character is a private eye.  But it is not that easy.

When the Private Eye Writers of America created the Shamus Awards they said any story qualified if the protagonist was a non-government  worker paid to investigate a crime.  I think of this as the Scudder Exception since one of the best private dicks of the time was Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder who did not have a P.I. license.  As he put it, he sometimes did favors for friends and sometimes they gave him  gifts.   

The typical non-P.I. starring in a private eye story is a lawyer or reporter, but Goodrich offers something different.  Howie Feldstein is a New York auctioneer and appraiser. A producer friend has flown him out to Hollywood to check the authenticity of a photograph he has been offered: one supposedly shot on the set of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and featuring none other than President Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.  Invaluable if it is real.

Feldstein's investigation takes him down a number of rabbit holes, not least of which are a missing woman and, eventually a killing.  This is a nice example of a private eye story without a P.I. license or rundown office in sight. 

Oh, spoiler alert: This story does reveal key points of the plot of the movie. If you haven't seen the flick do watch it.

Good Fences, by Terena Elizabeth Bell

"Good Fences," by Terena Elizabeth Bell in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July/August 2026. 

If you are going to use one of the classic tropes of the genre (spouse planning to kill spouse, criminal forced to commit One Last Job, etc.) you had better find some way to make your story stand out from the mob.

As I have said before, one of the characteristics that makes a tale stand out for me is heightened language.  That is, the words are doing more than carrying the reader from the title to THE END.  In effect, they are expressing a view of the world.

This classic trope here is feuding neighbors.  Harlan and Leon are both lawn-proud and when moles invade their property each is determined to send the beasties to the other side.  

As for heightened language, this is what happens after one of our boys is dissatisfied with "his wife's third cousin once removed" who he hired to reseed the lawn:

So Harlan said to H on the boy then told his wife to get their money back, but Ethyl said, Now Harlan, and he calmed down just enough to let the matter go. 

This is more than informal writing, this feels like someone is telling you the story orally.  Imagine how different it would be if  the tale was written in the more standard style: When the grass grew back spotty Harlan said "To hell with that boy. You need to get the money back." All the flavor would go out of it.

This story is a lot of fun. 

 

 

A Lost Dream, by Dave Zeltserman

 

"A Lost Dream," by Dave Zeltserman, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July/August 2026.

This is the second story by Zeltserman to make my page.  

Ah, what we have is a breath of fresh noir.  The formula of classic noir is the American dream seen through a funhouse mirror:  A nobody tries to make something of himself,  but his method is connected to  a crime and  the universe stomps him.  But this story takes an interesting twist on the formula.

When the tale starts Dan Sutton is already a successful burglar, but one night he has a dream (an American dream)  of the perfect crime.  In the morning he can't remember it and he is so upset he tells his girlfriend, who doesn't realize what he does for a living.

To save his relationship, and because no crime is as good as the one he dreamed, he seeks a way to go straight.  He succeeds, but as is so often the case in noir, you can change yourself but the hard part is changing your past. A very satisfying tale.   

 

Ovaloid Skulls, by Benoit Severac

"Ovaloid Skulls," by Benoit Séverac, in Toulouse Noir, edited by Charles-Henri Lavielle, Akashic Press, 2026.

The publisher sent me a copy of this book.

Hervé Roblés came up with a clever scheme to smuggle migrants but the Albanians who had the monopoly on that sort of thing did not appreciate the competition.  Therefore he has had to exile himself to Toulouse. While he waits for things to cool down he has a late-night job handling phone calls for a computer service agency.

 Everything is okey-dokey until one night he looks out the window and sees someone wandering through the old cemetery outside.  He becomes fascinated, if not obsessed: What is that guy doing wandering around in the middle of the night?

In this very clever and suspenseful story Séverac has combined a very old type of crime with a 21st century innovation. 

 

 

Noir Canal, by Manu Causse

"Noir Canal," by Manu Causse, in Toulouse Noir, edited by Charles-Henri Lavielle, Akashic Press, 2026.

Akashic Press sent me a free copy of this book. 

Some of the stories in this book seem more interested in giving tours of a neighborhood than exploring a crime.  Not this one, though.  It gives the readers a mystery: not a  whodunit, but a why.

Olie is a trans woman who is a sociology student and volunteers to help prostitutes.  You would think that gives her plenty of reasons to want to avoid the police.So why did she call the police at 4 A.M. to report finding a murdered man beside the canal? And then stay around to answer their questions?  

She has her reasons, which we will eventually learn. Along the way we will also learn a great deal about how prostitution works in France.  Very nice ending, too. 

 

The Briar Patch, by Tom Milani

"The Briar Patch," by Tom Milani, in Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, edited by Michael Bracken, and Stacy Woodson, Level Best Books, 2026.Michael Bracken sent me a copy of this book.  Some themed anthologies are pretty general - stories about movies, say - and some are very specific.  For example, each of these crime stories uses the title of, and refers to the plot of, a fairy tale.In the original tale Brer Rabbit outsmarts the bigger and dangerous Brer Fox by convincing him to "punish" the bunny by tossing him into the briar patch - exactly where he wants to be. So how does that turn into a modern mystery story?Rabbit is the nickname of a worker at Brothers Salvage, an auto junkyard.  The boss thinks he's reliable but not very bright.  So we're ready for our hero to be underestimated, and he is.The junkyard is being used as a transfer point for drugs and one day Mr. Fox comes to pick some up, but Rabbit has done something with them.  Can Rabbit outsmart the violent Mr. Fox? Can a bunny hop?There are a few nice easter eggs in this fun story, such as the name of the bartender.  



 

Pitchapalooza, by Robert Parker

 "Pitchapalooza," by Robert Parker, in Black Cat Weekly, #253, 2026. 

The main character  of this tale is Geneva Slitherbee (great name). Notice I didn't call her the heroine, cause heroic, she ain't.  She is a literary agent attending Pitchapalooza where "wannabe writers... for the price of their conference registration and some 50 bucks or so per pitch... get five minutes to convince an agent just to consider looking at their years of writing."

We quickly learn that Geneva is not taking their work seriously but we can hardly blame her considering the quality of the pitches we hear about.  "Think Dirty Harry meets Night of the Living Dead meets Bridget Jones's Diary," one wannabe urges.  We'd rather not. 

Is there a crime here, other than collecting those fees for allegedly listening to pitches?  There is.  Is this story funny? Oh, yes.

I admit the ending isn't as strong as I hoped, but a good time will be had on the way. 

 

Three Billy Goats Gruff, by Michael Bracken

 "Three Billy Goats Gruff," by Michael Bracken, in Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, edited by Michael Bracken, and Stacy Woodson, Level Best Books, 2026. 

Michael Bracken, friend and fellow SleuthSayer, as well as co-editor of this book, sent me a free copy. And what do you know? His story is the best I have read so far in the book. It also marks his thirteenth appearance in this blog.  

One of the big trends in popular fiction these days is retellings of mythology.  Someone should do an anthology of that, don't you think?  While we wait for that one we have this volume based on fairy tales.  Some are grim (Grimm?). This one, not so much.

Three brothers, Buck, Billy, and Kid Gruff, run a disreputable marijuana dispensary.  When a virus starts destroying their crops they hope to negotiate a deal with their long-time rivals, the Troll family.  But only the patriarch of that family can make such arrangements and to reach him the Gruffs have to cross a Troll (or toll) bridge.  Lot of puns here, naturally...

   

 

 

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

 .

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.

Strangers on a Train on a Train, by Paul Ryan O'Connor

"Strangers on a Train on a Train," by Paul Ryan O'Connor, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, May/June 2026. 

This is the second story by O'Connor to grace this page.  The main character of the first story is a minor player in this one.  Great title, by the way.

Cass is a college student and she is watching guess-which-movie on her phone  on a subway train when a stranger comes up and starts talking to her about it.  He's interested in making a deal with her, similar to the one in the flick: an exchange of crimes.

"What if I don't want to kill anyone?" Cass said.

"You mean if you don't want to kill anyone YET," the man said.

The man's name is Pollock and he is a cop.  He knows a lot about Cass, which is a puzzle because there is a lot to know.  She is not your average college student. This means she is in more danger than you might expect, but it might mean more danger for someone else.

A nicely suspenseful story with many twists and turns.

Pandora's Bounty, by Gilbert M. Stack

 

"Pandora's Bounty," by Gilbert M. Stack, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, May/June 2026.

I was surprised that this is only the second time one of Stack's stories made my best-of list.  I am very fond of the tales in this series.

He writes western mysteries about an unusual trio of adventurers. Corey "Rock Quarry" Callaghan is a bare-knuckle boxer making a precarious life fighting for money through the small towns of the west.  Patrick Sullivan is his trainer.  Pandora Parson is a professional gambler, and the brains of the group.

Patrick is especially not the brains.  In fact, in any situation he is pretty much guaranteed to make things worse.  There was one point in this story when he said something so ill-advised that I startled my wife by gasping out loud.

So, what is the situation the friends find themselves in?  A bounty has been put out for Corey because he beat up two miners and stole their gold.  Except he didn't do that, of course. Someone is imitating our hero, boxing under his name, and dirtying it in the process.

Pandora, naturally, comes up with an elaborate scheme to draw the impostor to them and then expose him.  A clever and satisfactory story.

It's Complicated, by Nick Guthrie

 "It's Complicated," by Nick Guthrie, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2026.

"There's a million and one ways to lose a body out here, if that's what you want to do," Reuben called after me, before laughing again. He spoke like a man who knew all the best places to hide a body on this fifteen hundred-acre  estate and hadn't quite used them all up yet.

 Reuben, gamekeeper on said estate is one of several people who might be a help our narrator, Suzie Lee. Or might be her worst enemy.  Because she can't trust anyone.

Suzie is a cop and she has been hiding in this rural area of England for four months with Kurt, her ex-lover.  He is another cop and  has been investigating corruption in the highest levels of the police, for which he was rewarded with a bullet.  

Now, after four months of seeming safety they have found a dead body in front of their cabin.  Is it possibly a coincidence?  Sure, but we all know it ain't.  Somebody has found them and somebody wants them dead.  

What does Suzie want, exactly? Well, read the title. 

 

Intervention, by Terry Black

"Intervention," by Terry Black, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2026. 

 Very short stories can be wonderful, but, boy, they are hard to review. How much can you say without giving away too much? This tale is very good but it's under 2,000 words, so forgive me if I keep this brief.

Our hero -- well, let him speak for himself.

[T]here's no girlfriend, no guy friends, no social group, no family -- I'm one of a dozen kids in a foster home where no one cares. I get bullied in school and sit alone at lunch and never get invited anywhere, b y anyone.  Zero social life, zero reason to keep on living.

So now he is standing on the roof of a six-store building, girding himself to take that one last step off into the void. Then he sees something, something  which doesn't change his mind but convinces him to postpone the final act for a moment.  

What he sees I can't tell you.  And what happens next, well, that is a clever and satisfying resolution. 

Shooting for Harvard, by Jeff Soloway

 

"Shooting for Harvard," by Jeff Soloway, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2026.

This is Soloway's second appearance in this column.  

It is not unusual for private eye stories to contain social commentary, going back at least to Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, with its examination of a corrupt mining town.

This is a story about people who have moved to Iowa.  The narrator, nameless as far as I can tell, was a cop but after he got 20 years he retired and followed his ex-wife to her home state to be close to his teenage daughter, Sam.  

He is hired by the Crovens (a great name), a family who moved to Iowa for a different reason: they want their son Stanley to get into Harvard and since that university wants students from every state, Iowa is a better bet than more populated states with more competitive high schools.

Unfortunately someone shot at Stanley and, perhaps accidentally, injured his hand.  The Crovens suspect Billy Haidt, whose family moved to the same Iowa town for the same reason.  These rival families are not charming people.  Here is Billy's mother meeting our hero:

"You innocent. You child. You cop. The game, my friend, is geographic diversity.  Make me some coffee."

The search for truth leads in surprising directions and ends with the best last sentence I've read in quite a while.

Lest We Forget, by Marilyn Todd

 

"Lest We Forget," by Marilyn Todd, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2026.

This is Marilyn Todd's third appearance in this column. 

 Repeating myself: Stories I like best tend to have at least one of four characteristics: great characters, twist ending, heightened language, or great premise.  Todd has come up with a great premise.

We are all familiar with that question: Do you remember where you were when (some event, usually tragic) happened?  And of course, we do.

This story is told entirely in connection to that kind of day.  It begins on 9/11/2001 when Amber, age 12, comes home after hearing the horrible news about the terrorist attack only to find her mother murdered in the kitchen.  It appears to be a botched hostage situation because bank video shows her father emptying their accounts to try to pay a ransom.  His car is eventually found, torched, but he never is.

We see Amber growing up, a traumatized  orphan, in scenes linked to Princess Margaret's death, the Columbia disaster, and so on. We're rooting for her to find stability and happiness, against high odds...

I suspected how this excellent story would end (hey, I read a lot of shorts) but that didn't keep me from enjoying it thoroughly.