Short Mystery Fiction Society 2025 Derringer Award Finalists

The 2025 Short Mystery Fiction Society Derringer Award Finalists. Named after the popular pocket pistol, this award recognizes outstanding stories published during 2024. Results of membership voting are scheduled to be posted on May 1, 2025.
 
FLASH
 
Sweet Red Cherries by C.W. Blackwell
(Punk Noir Magazine, November 28, 2024)
 
Mob Mentality by James Patrick Focarile
(Shotgun Honey, June 20, 2024)
 
La Petite Mort by Susan Hatters Friedman
(Bristol Noir, February 16, 2024)
 
Kargin the Necromancer by Mike McHone
(Mystery Tribune, December 15, 2024)
 
Lockerbie, 1988 by Mary Thorson
(Cotton Xenomorph, October 13, 2024)
 
 
SHORT STORY 
 
"Skeeter's Bar and Grill" by Julie Hastrup
(Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
 
"The Wind Phone" by Josh Pachter
(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024)
 
"The Heist" by Bill Pronzini
(Shamus and Anthony Commit Capers: Ten Tales of Criminals, Crooks, and Culprits, Level Best Books)
 
"The Last Chance Coalition" by Judy Penz Sheluk
(Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, Superior Shores Press)
 
"The Kratz Gambit" by Mark Thielman
(Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)
 
LONG STORY
 
"How Mary’s Garden Grew" by Elizabeth Elwood
(Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, January/February 2024)
 
"Heart of Darkness" by Tammy Euliano
(Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked: Crime Fiction Inspired by Waffle House, Down & Out Books)
 
"Putting Things Right" by Peter W. J. Hayes
(Thrill Ride - The Magazine, December 21, 2024)
 
"Motive Factor X" by Joseph Andre Thomas
(Howls from the Scene of the Crime: A Crime Horror Anthology, Howl Society Press)
 
"Cold Comfort" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
(Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies, Down & Out Books)
  
NOVELETTE
 
"A Band of Scheming Women" by Joslyn Chase
(Thrill Ride - The Magazine, March 21, 2024)
 
"Christmas Dinner" by Robert Lopresti
(Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2024)
 
"Barracuda Backfire" by Tom Milani
(Chop Shop Episode 4, Down & Out Books, April 1, 2024)
 
"Her Dangerously Clever Hands" by Karen Odden
(Crimeucopia - Through the Past Darkly, Murderous Ink Press)
 
"The Cadillac Job" by Stacy Woodson
(Chop Shop Episode 1, Down & Out Books, January 1, 2024

ANTHOLOGY

(Previously Announced)

Devil's Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024

Edited by Susan Oleksiw, Ang Pompano, Leslie Wheeler, Crime Spell Books

Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the Grateful Dead

Edited by Josh Pachter, Down & Out Books

Larceny & Last Chances: 22 Stories of Mystery & Suspense

Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk, Superior Shores Press

Murder, Neat: A SleuthSayers Anthology

Edited by Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, Level Best Books

New York State of Crime: Murder New York Style 6

Edited by D.M. Barr and Joseph R.G. De Marco, Down & Out Books

The 13th Letter

Edited by Donna Carrick, Carrick Publishing

APRIL FOOL'S DAY CRIME FICTION // APRIL FOOL'S DAY MYSTERIES

April Fool's Day Mysteries: I love any chance to celebrate a 'holiday,' so even April Fool's Day fits the bill! Here's a short list full of foolish and not so foolish crime fiction that takes place on and around April Fool's Day! As always, let me know if I've forgotten a title!

The first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day.
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment.

--Poor Robin's Almanac, 1790 
 
APRIL FOOL'S DAY CRIME FICTION

The Marsh Madness by Victoria Abbott
Maple Fools' Day by Virginia K. Bennett

The Case of the April Fools by Christopher Bush
April's Fool by Edna May Ciesclwicz 
A Body on April Fool's Day by Steve Demaree

April Fool by William Deverell 
The April Fool by Robert J. Fields
April Fool's Day by John Greenwood
April Fools’ Day Murder by Lee Harris
April Fool Dead by Carolyn Hart 
A Remarkable Case of Burglary by H. R. F. Keating
April Fools by Jess Loury
The Confidence Man by Herman Melville
April Fool’s Day A Novel by Josip Novakovich (not quite a mystery but with mystery elements)
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
April Fool's Day by Jeff Rovin

Short Stories:
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 3: The April Fool’s Day Adventure and The Strange Adventure of the Uneasy Easy Chair by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green.

Children's:  
April Fool's Day by Carolyn Keene (Book #19 of Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew)

Meg Mackintosh and The April Fools' Day Mystery by Lucinda Landon

The April Fool's Day Mystery by Marion M. Markham,  illustrated by Pau Estrada

SLEUTHFEST 2025

Sleuthfest, a conference for mystery, thriller, and suspense fiction writers, was postponed because of bad weather (hurricane!), but here's the new date: May 15-18, 2025. Don't miss this fun conference!

Click here to register. 

KEN BRUEN: R.I.P.

Very sad news. Ken Bruen, Irish mystery author and poet, died yesterday. Way too young. I met Ken several years ago, and we struck up what became a most valued friendship. He was truly a Renaissance man. We'd talk at conventions, and he was my guest at a literary salon at my tiny home where 50+ stalwart mystery fans squashed in to listen to him. He regaled us with stories in his Irish brogue. I loved his books. He had such a lyrical way with words. Ken was only 74. He will be missed. 

From the Connacht Tribune

Best known as the man behind the Jack Taylor crime series, he was the author of more than 50 books over a stellar career that made him one of the most prominent Irish crime writers of the last two decades.  

He was a past winner of the prestigious Shamus Award for best crime novel of the year; he also won the Macavity Award, the Barry Award, the Edgar Award – an award he was also shortlisted for earlier in his career. 

Born in Galway in 1951, he was educated at Gormanston College in Co Meath and later at Trinity College Dublin, where he earned a PhD in metaphysics. 

Ken Bruen spent 25 years traveling the world before he began writing in the mid-1990s. As an English teacher, Ken worked in South Africa, Japan, and South America, where he once spent four months in a Brazilian jail. 

He has two long-running series; one starring Jack Taylor, the disgraced former policeman – with acclaimed actor Iain Glen in the title role – and the other, the London police detective Inspector Brant.  

Nine of the Jack Taylor novels were turned into the eponymous television series, all shot around Galway city, with a host of local actors and crew members. Set in Galway, the acclaimed series relates the adventures and misadventures of a disgraced former police officer working as a haphazard private investigator whose life has been marred by alcoholism and drug abuse. 

His Brants and Roberts novel Blitz was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name, starring Jason Statham, Paddy Considine and Aidan Gillen. Indeed Ken Bruen’s work was tailormade for the big screen on many fronts. Bruen’s 2014 novel Merrick was adapted for TV as the series 100 Code, starring Dominic Monaghan and Michael Nyqvist. His 2001 novel, London Boulevard, was adapted for the big screen in 2010 and starred Keira Knightley, Colin Farrell, David Thewlis and Ray Winstone. 

Ken Bruen lived and worked in Galway – and so much of his work was set in the streets, alleyways and pubs of Galway.

He passed away overnight at University Hospital Galway, and is survived by his wife Phyl Kennedy, and their daughter Grace who Ken once described, in a piece for the Connacht Tribune, as ‘the abiding light in my varied life’.

***

Mystery Readers Journal: Irish Mysteries (24:2: 2008): 

"No, Not the Blarney Stone" by Ken Bruen

And

        ghosts

                must

                        do

                                again...

Those lines by Auden- which continue with 

            

                    what gives them pain

--what brings those lines to the forefront of my mind are the posts by Dusty and Alex about sometimes hating writing. Oh horror, heresy etc. a writer not always loving their craft. Arthur Miller well in his 70s, said, every morning he sits in front of the blank page and feels...terror. I don't think any of the writers I respect ever said it was easy.

    There are mornings, when I see a ton of email, I give a sigh of relief as it means I can defer actual writing for a bit. If I skip a day, for whatever reason and don't actually write, I feel guilty and no rationale will eradicate it.

    There's no real mystery, pardon the bad pun, to writing. You just sit down and do it.

    Right.

    How hard can that be?

    And writers block...they say, think of your bank manager, and you'll be back on track.

    The days of blankness, when I really don't have a single thought in my head, I just barge and blaze through it. Blood from a stone. 

Birthday Crime Fiction // Birthday Mysteries

Today is my Birthday! Celebrate with me by reading one of these Birthday Themed Mysteries -- or, keep the list for your own Birthday! Every year I get older, and every year this list gets longer. Any titles missing? Make a comment below, and I'll add it to the list! Have a favorite? Let me know!

Birthday Crime Fiction

Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer

Happy Birthday, Turk! by Jakob Arjouni and Anselm Hollo
A Birthday to Die For by Frank Atchley
Cranberry Crimes by Jessica Beck

Birthdays Can be Deadly by Cindy Bell
The Birthday Murderer by Jay Bennett
The Birthday Party by Halini Boland

Birthday Can Be Murder by Joyce Cato

Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark
Berries and Birthdays by Leena Clover

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
A Catered Birthday Party by Isis Crawford
The Birthday Gift by Ursula Reilly Curtiss
The Birthday Party: Family Reunions Can Be Murder by Chari Davenport
The Whole Enchilada by Diane Mott Davidson

The Party by Elizabeth Day
The Birthday Girl by Melissa de La Cruz
There's Something about Mary by Wendy Delaney
A Birthday Secret by Nickolas Drake
The Birthday Party by Wendy Dranfield

Birthday Pie Burial by Diana Dumont
Murder Can Botch Up Your Birthday by Selma Eichler

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

The Birthday Girl by Sue Fortin
Birthday Cake and Bodies by Agatha Frost
Birthday Sprinkle Murder by Susan Gillard
Aunti Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano
The Nanny by Dan Greenburg
The Happy Birthday Murder by Lee Harris
They Found Him Dead by Georgette Heyer
Birthday Cake Waffle by Carolyn Q. Hunter
Birthday Girl by Matthew Iden

Death in the Garden by Elizabeth Ironside
Happy Birthday, Marge by Shari Hearn
The Birthday Treasure Mystery by Kaylee Huyser
Birthday Party by Marne Davis Kellogg
Murder with a Twist by Tracy Kiely
Birthday Party by C.H.B Kitchin and Adrian Wright
Spiced by Gina LaManna 

The Birthday Girl by Stephen Leather
The Birthday Murder by Lange Lewis
Creme Brulee Murder by Harper Lin
The Old Die Young by Richard Lockridge
The Birthday Killer by W. Kay Lynn
Birthdays for the Dead by Stuart McBride

False Scent by Ngaio Marsh
The Birthday Mystery by Faith Martin
The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier
Birthday Party Murder by Leslie Meier 

Birthday Cake Bloodshed by Addison Moore

Many Deadly Returns by Patricia Moyes
The Body in the Casket by Katherine Hall Page
A Birthday Murder by Olivia Page

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 

21st Birthday by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro 
Birthday, Deathday; The Cannibal Who Overate by Hugh Pentecost
The Birthday Club by Jack Peterson

Murder and Meringue Cake by Rosie A. Point
The Birthday Party by W. Price
Birthday Dance by Peter Robinson
Birthdays are Murder by Cindy Sample

The Birthday Bash by Elizabeth Sorrells
Don't Scream by Wendy Corsi Staub
Birthday Cake and a Murder by Kathleen Suzette

Sharpe Turn by Lisa B. Thomas
The Day After the Party by Nicole Trope

Fear in the Sunlight by Nicola Upson
The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell

The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine
Cakes for Your Birthday by C.E. Vulliamy

The Birthday Surprise by Clara Vulliamy (Children's) 
A Birthday Lunch by Martin Walker
The Birthday Girl by Sarah Ward

The Birthday by Elizabeth Wells
The Mortician's Birthday Party by Peter Whalley
Birthday Girl by Niko Wolf

The Fortieth Birthday Body by Valerie Wolzien
Happy Birthday Murder by Rachel Woods
The Birthday by Carol Wyer
The Birthday by Margaret Yorke

Short Story:

"The Birthday Dinner" by Donna Andrews in Death Dines In, edited by Claudia Bishop & Dean James

Children's: 

    Cam Jansen and the Birthday Mystery by David A. Adler, Illustrated by Susanna Natti
    The Birthday Party Mystery by Fran Manushkin

AUTHORS & THEIR CATS: P.D. JAMES

Happy Caturday! Today I'm continuing my Authors & their Cats feature. Here's a great photo of mystery author P.D. James and her cat!