White Elephants, by Peter W.J. Hayes

 "White Elephants," by Peter W.J. Hayes, in Mystery Most International, edited by Rita Owen, Verena Rose, and Shawn Reilly Simmons, Level Short, 2024.

I have a story in this book.

This is Hayes' third appearance in this blog.  It's a nice little spy story.  Levon Grace isn't a career guy, mor of a free-lancer.  The CIA uses him as a bagman, bringing money to places in Asia.  

But his current assignment is different.  He is bringing a priceless painting to a gangster in Asia.  In return the gangster is giving him valuable information about the latest crackdown and new personnel in the government of China.  

This would be a very short story if everything went right, so of course it doesn't.  Chinese agents want Levon's swag, but dodgin them, deadly as they are, is only part of the problem, because the gangster isn't playing straight.

If you like your spy stories tangled and action-packed you will enjoy this one.

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bled, by Joseph S. D'Agnese

 "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bled," by Joseph S. D'Agnese, in Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology, edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Short, 2024.

I have a story in this book.

This nice historical tale is the third appearance here by my friend and fellow SleuthSayer, Joseph S. D'Agnese.

Greenwich Village has been a magnet for the artistic and the different for a long time.  This story is set in 1859 when such people flocked to Pfaff's a German-owned tavern.  When a theatre critic is murdered there one night it draws unwanted attention to the place. Things go on there that might get the place shut down if the police find out about it.

Clearly what is needed is an amateur sleuth who knows the place and the people and that turns out to be... Walt Whitman.  The poet is a regular, as is his acquaintance the famous illustrator Thomas Nast.  (It would have been cool if Nast could play Watson, but I suppose there was too much Whitman couldn't let him know.) 

Complicating the case is the fact that the critic was stabbed while sitting with a glass of poison.  Was this two attempts at murder, or a botched suicide, or something else?

Fascinating story with great period detail.