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. 

Skeleton Crew, by V.G. Burke

 

"Skeleton Crew," by V.G. Burke, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, January/February 2026.

First stories seldom make this list but Burke's did.  

Our protagonist is a guy named Road, a veteran who saw too much and isn't sure he can live with it.  Or that he wants to.  A fellow vet named Sophie tries to keep him from taking a permanent way out, and Road owes her something.  

In Savannah, Georgia he meets a cop, another veteran, who tells Road that what he needs to keep him going  is a mission.  He finds one in a bar: HAVE YOU SEEN DAVID GRANT? A popular habitue of the joint, a genuine nice guy, has vanished.  And Road may still have the skills to track him.  

The story gets pretty brutal.    If it wasn't in EQMM's Department of First Stories it could have worked in their Black Mask Department.

I wish the story had been more tightly edited.  For example, there were a few spots where I couldn't tell who was speaking.  But it's a very enjoyable tale.   

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... 

  

 

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. 

Hours on the Phone, by Greg Fallis

 "Hours on the Phone," by Gregory Fallis, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July/August 2025.

This is the fourth story by Fallis to make my column, and the third about these characters.  

Clayton Ellicott is a lawyer at a nonprofit who helps artists. Hockney is a  private eye who sometimes works for him. 

Ellicott's client this time is Melly, a successful web comics artist who is, well, a little eccentric.  Actually, a lot eccentric.  Basically a hermit.  She lives in the house she grew up in and only four people are allowed to visit her.  

Someone is sending her harassing email.  Hockney to Ellicott: "I don't know how to tell you this, but almost every woman who's ever gone online gets harassed like that."  

But this is different.  Weird and it seems like the harasser knows her.  And only four people know Melly...

This is a different and convincing story. I believed in Melly in all her pain and frustration.  Nice work.

Tarzan Must Die!, by Loren D. Estleman

 "Tarzan Must Die!," by Loren D. Estleman, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May/June 2025.

I am astonished that this is only the third time Estleman has made my Best of the Week list.  He writes so many great short story series: Amos Walker, the Four Horsemen, Claudius Lyon... and in today's adventure, Valentino.

Valentino works for the film school at UCLA and his job is searching for missing movies.  This suits him since he a cinema fanatic.  In today's story he meets his match, Darrien Bix, a former child star, now appearing in a dreadful cheapo Tarzan movie.  Turns out Bix is obsessed with the Lord of the Jungle and has a bit of film history Valentino would love to get his hands on. 

But this being a mystery Bix dies - and in a bizarre manner.  Clever puzzle, sharp writing, interesting characters. 

 

The Scarlatti Skip, by Richard Helms

"The Scarlatti Skip," by Richard Helms, in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, January/February 2025.

 This is the twelfth story by Helms to reach this blog.

Private eye Eamon Gold does a lot of skip tracing for bail bonders but this assignment is more preventative: Keep an eye on the Fiddle Killer and make sure she doesn't run. So why is Veronica Scarlatti called the Fiddle Killer? 

"'Darren Wojohowski was learning to play,' Doogie said.  'According to the police reports, his progress was slow. His girlfriend Veronica became irritated and emptied her revolver into the violin. Tragically it was tucked under Darren's chin at the time.'"

Some of us may be inclined to sympathize.  But Veronica, an attractive young woman, knows she is looking at "twenty years in a box."  She swears she just wants to spend the last few days in unsupervised peace, but Eamon is being paid to keep her under supervision. 

You will not be surprised to know she makes a run for it.  Things get complicated.  Then they get worse.  A very enjoyable story.