Fifteen Minutes From Fame, by Mark Thielman

 

"Fifteen Minutes From Fame," by Mark Thielman, in Black Cat Weekly, #183, 2025.

This is the eleventh appearance in this column by fellow SleuthSayer Mark Thielman.

What we have here is a very silly story.  If you read my reviews you know I don't consider that a bad thing.

Johnny is a man with a mission.  He recently discovered that he had been arrested for misdemeanors in almost every state in the union. He figures if he can score all fifty social media fame and fortune must surely follow.

Alas, his plans keep getting foiled by cooperative victims, changing laws, and disinterested employees.

The clerk shook his head.  "I've given my notice. I'm out of this place.  Steal everything in here; I don't care."

But a man with real determination to do the wrong thing has to succeed. Doesn't he?

Very funny stuff.

 

Of Average Intelligence, by O'Neil De Noux

 "Of Average Intelligence," by O'Neil De Noux, in Black Cat Weekly, #85.

This is the second appearance here by my friend and fellow SleuthSayer. De Noux is a retired police officer so it is not surprising that many of his stories feature cops.  As does this.

Let's look at the opening:

"No offense, Office Kintyre.  But I'm smarter than you."

Have you already taken offense?  I certainly have.  Attorney Matt Glick is the speaker and he has recently killed his wife.  The cops have a ton of circumstantial evidence against him and he has a ready explanation for every bit of it.

Blood in the bathtub?  She cut her hand on an X-acto knife.  Hair in the trunk of his car?  She borrowed it and had to change a tire. And so on.  

In fact the only thing Glick doesn't have  a ready work-around for is his own smug superiority, and you know darn well that that is what is going to bring him down.  Which it does. 

You will enjoy the process.