The Hanging Judge, by Dave Zeltserman

 "The Hanging Judge," by  Dave Zeltserman, in Black Cat Weekly, #163, 2024.

World-building is a topic that gets discussed a lot among writers of science fiction and fantasy, but not so much  in mystery.  The assumption there is you are trying to set your story in the world we live in.  (Historical mysteries are different, especially if they are set in the distant past where we have to speculate about how people lived.)

But this story is all about world-building.  Of course, it is a fantasy mystery. Mike Stone begins by telling us "I might be hell's only operating private eye."     

So the world Zeltserman has to show us is hell, but not just any ol' Hades.  It turns out that every resident with a strong enough personality or "enough self-awareness" generates his or her own private hell, and can drag less aware persons into it.

Stone's problem is that he isn't getting any business.  (Well, his bigger problem is that he's in hell, and the worst part of that, he explains, is the monotony.  So having no business is a real drag.)  He concludes that the problem might be that he did a lousy job on an earlier case, and "everything has consequences in hell."  So Stone sets out to determine, this time for sure, who killed his client, a corrupt judge.

No need for me to detail his investigation.  You either enjoy this sort of thing or you don't.  I enjoyed it very much.

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.

Satan's Spit, by Gabriel Valjan

 "Satan's Spit," by Gabriel Valjan, in Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024. edited by Heather Graham, Down and Out Books, 2024.

This is the second story by Valjan to make this list.

It is 1934 and in rural Tennessee Sheriff Presser and Deputy Garland are called to a murder in Satan's Spit, the Negro part of town.  The victim is Charlie, a teenage boy, except it turns out that she was a girl.  She used to play harmonica in Mama Raye's juke joint, which is nearby.

Charlie's secret is just the first of many that need to be investigated before the murderer can be uncovered.  For example: who called the police in the first place?

This is a nice historical story with plenty of period and location detail.