Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Fiction Podcast

EQMM was brought into the world by two writers who collaborated on nearly every piece of fiction they wrote, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. This month we feature a story by two writers who have collaborated with each other several times, most recently on a story for EQMM. Michael Bracken is the author of well over a thousand published short stories and he’s a recipient of the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement, among other honors. Sandra Murphy is a Derringer Award winner who has had a collection of stories published by Untreed Reads. She is the reader for this recording of “Sit. Stay. Die.” by Michael Bracken and Sandra Murphy, first published in the July/August 2022 issue of EQMM. http://www.crimefictionwriter.com

Our fiction podcast this month is a classic by author William Brittain, who wrote for EQMM from 1964 to 1983. It’s read by EQMM author and translator Josh Pachter, who has edited three collections of William Brittain’s stories. Here is “The Man Who Read John Dickson Carr,” from the December 1965 issue of EQMM. It was the first in a series of stories, all published in EQMM, whose titles begin “The Man Who."https://www.purple-planet.com/

This month in our podcast series we feature an Independence Day story by an award-winning writer for the Las Vegas Sun who made his fiction debut in EQMM’s Department of First Stories.  Just in time for July 4th,  here is Michael Grimala reading his story “A Trunk Full of Illegal Fireworks,” from the July/August 2021 issue of EQMM.https://www.purple-planet.com/

This month, Rob Osler reads his 2022 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award winning story “Analogue,” from our January/February 2021 issue. The author is a business writer who recently began writing fiction; he is at work on two mystery novels. “Analogue” is a satire of the business world while also being a twisty suspense tale.https://robosler.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com/

To introduce our May/June 2022 issue, we bring you Smita Harish Jain's reading of her latest story, "The Manglik Curse." Jain is an accomplished author who grew up in Mumbai and now lives in Virginia. Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies, as well as EQMM, where her first story "The Fraud of Dionysus" was one of the top-10 runners-up in EQMM 2021 Readers' Award poll. Listen on as Jain relates her tale of a lover's plot to escape an arranged marriage that was cursed from the start. https://www.purple-planet.com/

A classic from EQMM’s founding editors, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee (writing as Ellery Queen), is read for listeners in this episode of our podcast series by EQMM managing editor Jackie Sherbow. Don’t miss the chance to solve this classical puzzle mystery yourself in Ellery Queen’s hallmark Challenge to the Reader.https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/https://www.purple-planet.com/

William Burton McCormick is a regular contributor to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine whose writings have made him a finalist for Shamus, Derringer, and Claymore awards. In this episode of our podcast series, McCormick whisks us away to his vibrant and mysterious vision of ancient Rome as he reads "Pompo's Disguise," which appeared in our March/April 2015 issue.https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/https://www.williamburtonmccormick.com/https://www.purple-planet.com/

Anna Scotti is an award-winning poet whose work was recently collected in the volume Bewildered by All This Broken Sky. She’s also a novelist and short story writer and has, for the past few years, been contributing to EQMM a series of stories featuring a sleuth in the Witness Security program. For this entry in our podcast series, Anna Scotti reads her story “What the Morning Never Suspected,” the second in her WITSEC series, from the September/October 2020 issue of EQMM. https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.comhttp://www.annakscotti.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

To usher in 2022, we’ve chosen a New Year’s story from EQMM’s Department of First Stories. New writer Ken Linn begins his tale on July 4th—but follows his protagonist up to the turn of a new year. It’s a story of renewal perfect for reflecting on new beginnings. Here is Ken Linn reading his story “Stray,” first published in the January/February 2021 issue of EQMM.https://www.purple-planet.com

Former radio worker Bonnie Hearn Hill is the author of sixteen suspense novels, including The River Below. Here she reads her seasonally appropriate story "Feliz Navidead," from the January/February 2020 issue of EQMM and first-place winner of Writer's Digest Magazine's genre short story award.https://www.bonniehhill.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

Award-winning novelist and short-story writer Marilyn Todd has been contributing to EQMM since 2000, and her work often visits different historical periods and places, from Ancient Greece to 1960s London. This month, her story "Long Slow Dance Through the Passage of Time" (from the November/December 2018 issue), which begins in the doo-wop era, is read by actor Mandie Davis.http://www.marilyntodd.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

In our latest podcast episode, John F. Dobbyn—author of the Devlin and Knight legal thrillers as well as several Yukon stories in verse published in EQMM—reads "A Little Help From My Friend," a compelling tale from our March/April 2020 issue.https://www.johndobbyn.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

This month we offer something new: A reading by Canadian journalist, author, and professor Dean Jobb of his true crime piece "Arthur Conan Doyle and the Mutineers," which was published in the September/October 2020 issue. Dean Jobb's "Stranger Than Fiction" column appears in print in our magazine and online at www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com.http://www.deanjobb.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

As part of EQMM’s 80th anniversary celebration, we offer a podcast this month featuring some of the characters from the Ellery Queen novels and stories, written by Frederic Danny and Manfred B. Lee (EQMM’s founders). Dale C. Andrews is a longtime, devoted Ellery Queen fan and he’s written several Ellery Queen pastiches for EQMM. Here he is reading the most recent of them, “Four Words,” from the September/October 2020 issue of EQMM.https://www.purple-planet.com

EQMM has a tradition of including work written by writing teams and collaborators. Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet, who have been writing together for more than forty years as Hal Charles, saw their fiction debut in the magazine’s Department of First Stories. In this month’s podcast, Hal Blythe reads “Draw Play” by Hal Charles from the May 2003 issue. https://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/2021/06/09/if-it-werent-for-ellery-queen-by-hal-charles/https://archive.org

A longtime EQMM contributor, Michael Z. Lewin is a prolific novelist and short-story writer. An American by birth, he lives in the U.K. Michael Lewin is the author of the P.I. Albert Samson series; another of his popular series features Indianapolis detective Sergeant Leroy Powder, who is the central character of the story he reads here, “The Cards You’re Dealt” from the November/December 2020 issue of EQMM.http://www.michaelzlewin.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

Novelist and short-story author Jeff Soloway was the winner of the 2014 Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story by an American Author. Here he reads his EQMM debut from the January/February 2021 issue, "The Interpreter and the Killer," which features a central character in a job we don't see often in mystery fiction.http://www.randomhousebooks.com/authors/jeff-solowayhttps://www.purple-planet.com

This month we’ve selected a private-eye story for the podcast: “All Shook Down,” from the September/October 2020 issue of EQMM. It’s the first contribution to the magazine by Libby Cudmore, author of the highly acclaimed novel The Big Rewind. If you like it—and we’re sure you will!—there’s another story in the series coming up in our next issue, May/June 2021.https://libbycudmore.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

As part of EQMM's 80th-year anniversary celebration this year (2021), we offer a seasonally appropriate history-laden mystery by the multitalented writing team of Ellery Queen: "The President's Half Disme," originally published in EQMM in February 1947.

Edward D. Hoch had a thirty-five-year streak of unbroken publication in each issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine until his death in early 2008. We have no doubt that he still has many fans among our readers. 2021 is the magazine’s 80th year of publication, and as part of our celebration of highlights of our history we wanted to be sure to include some of Edward D. Hoch’s work. The Rochester author was a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, an Edgar Allan Poe Award winner, and the recipient of two Anthony Awards. For this podcast EQMM editor Janet Hutchings reads his story “The Man Who Drowned in Champagne,” from the April 1998 issue of EQMM.