Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Fiction Podcast

Stacy Woodson, the most recent winner of the EQMM Readers Award, made her fiction debut in EQMM’s Department of First Stories in the November/December 2018 issue. That debut story is only the second first story in the thirty-four years of Readers Award history to take first place. While in New York City for the awards ceremony last month, the Washington D.C. area author read her winning tale for this podcast.http://stacywoodson.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

One of the current nominees for the Malice Domestic Convention’s Agatha Awards (winners to be determined in May), our featured story this month is set at a most unusual Thanksgiving dinner. Author Barb Goffman’s many previous honors include the Agatha, Macavity, and Silver Falchion awards. Here she is reading “Bug Appétit,” her EQMM debut, from our November/December 2018 issue.http://www.barbgoffman.com

Currently nominated for both the MWA’s Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Malice Domestic Convention’s Agatha Award for best short story, our selection this month is by Art Taylor, who debuted in EQMM’s Department of First Stories in 1995 and has become a star in the field of the mystery and crime short story. Here he is reading “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” from the July/August 2018 EQMM. Both the author and EQMM wish to thank several staff members from the English Department at George Mason University, where Art Taylor teaches, for their assistance in this reading: Mary Baldwin (a linguist), Lisa DesRochers-Short (a poet), and Jay Patel (a fiction writer)—and the reader of the story’s final section, Madison Gaines, Class of 2021, who’s pursuing a dual concentration in fiction and poetry in Mason’s BFA Program in Creative Writing.http://www.arttaylorwriter.comhttp://malicedomestic.orghttp://theedgars.comhttps://www2.gmu.edu

A tale from Edgar nominee John Lantigua’s popular Willie Cuesta private eye series is featured in this episode of our podcast series. Readers are sure to enjoy this intriguing case, set in Miami’s Little Havana. Here is “The Cuban Prisoner” by John Lantigua, originally published in the September/October 2018 issue of EQMM and read for us by professional actor and voiceover artist Carlos Alayeto.http://johnlantigua.com

Teresa Solana received a nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for her first contribution to EQMM, “Still Life No. 41.” The story was translated from Catalan by her husband, Peter Bush, and was featured in EQMM’s Passport to Crime department in March/April 2012. Reading that celebrated story for this podcast is EQMM’s associate editor, Jackie Sherbow. The tale is also included in a new digital anthology co-edited by Emily Hockaday and Jackie Sherbow, entitled Terror at the Crossroads: Tales of Horror, Delusion, and the Unknown.https://www.bitterlemonpress.com/blogs/authors/19585859-teresa-solanahttp://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/terror-at-the-crossroads-tales-of-horror-delusion-and-the-unknown/https://www.purple-planet.com

Edgar Allan Poe Award winner John Morgan Wilson has been contributing short stories to EQMM since 2003. Many listeners will know his long fiction, which includes the Benjamin Justice mystery series and several novels cowritten with band leader Peter Duchin. The California author’s short stories range from suspense to the classical whodunit. For this podcast he chose to read his twisty tale “Edward at the Edge,” from the January 2005 issue of EQMM.

This month’s podcast takes us back to 1968 and the debut of one of EQMM’s youngest contributors ever, Josh Pachter. At the age of sixteen the budding author and Ellery Queen fan produced this story, which saw print in EQMM's December 1968 issue, in the Department of First Stories. This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of that issue going on sale. In the ensuing years Josh Pachter has produced dozens of other distinguished short stories and collaborative works, as well as crime-fiction translations. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his EQMM debut, a new story featuring the central character of this tale, Ellery Queen Griffen, appears in our current issue, November/December 2018, and the author has recorded for our podcast this reading of “E.Q. Griffen Earns His Name."http://joshpachter.comhttps://www.free-stock-music.com

Our selection this month is by a writer who debuted in EQMM and has gone on to have work chosen for the yearly Best American Mystery Stories anthology and to appear again in EQMM and other publications, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Here is Chris Muessig reading his story “Bias,” from the July 2009 issue of EQMM.Dramatic Interlude by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.comMusic promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.comAttribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

EQMM’s famous Department of First Stories is the source for this month’s podcast. The debut story, which appears in EQMM’s current issue, takes us into the life of a new writer who enjoys success, but at a cost. Author Nancy Novick, a medical writer, editor, and writing instructor, came to EQMM’s offices to do this recording of her story “How Does He Die This Time?” from the September/October 2018 EQMM.https://nancynovick.comImpatience by Punch Deck | https://soundcloud.com/punch-deckMusic promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

At the Malice Domestic convention in Bethesda, Maryland, this past spring, EQMM had the pleasure of recording Shelly Dickson Carr, author of the award-winning YA novel “Ripped,” reading a story by her grandfather, the great Golden Age mystery writer John Dickson Carr. The most celebrated master of the “locked room” mystery, John Dickson Carr contributed both fiction and book reviews to EQMM. His April 1950 story “The Gentleman From Paris" was one of the winners of EQMM’s Worldwide Short Story Contests.www.ripped-book.com

A tale from EQMM’s Black Mask department is featured in this month’s podcast. We caught up with Con Lehane, author of two popular mystery series, at this year’s Malice Domestic convention in Bethesda, Maryland, where he did this reading of his September/October 2017 EQMM story “Come Back, Paddy Reilly”—a classic noir tale of a flawed character caught in an unresolvable dilemma.http://conlehane.com

This month we feature an Ellery Queen pastiche by Dale C. Andrews. The third entry in a series begun on the heels of the Ellery Queen Centenary Symposium at Columbia University in 2005, the story brings an elderly Ellery Queen, still at the height of his deductive powers, out of retirement. The first story in this series earned an EQMM Readers Award scroll and a nomination for the Barry Award. Here is Dale Andrews reading his story “Literally Dead,” from the December 2013 issue of EQMM.http://wildsidepress.com/the-misadventures-of-ellery-queen-edited-by-josh-pachter-dale-c-andrews-paperback/http://queen.spaceports.com

Award-winning financial journalist Larry Light is also the author of three novels, two starring financial reporter Karen Glick. This year he made his EQMM debut with the story he reads for this episode in our podcast series, "Dysperception," from the January/February 2018 issue of EQMM.http://www.lawrencelight.com

Last month a long-awaited anthology of Ellery Queen pastiches and parodies entitled The Misadventures of Ellery Queen was released by Wildside Press. Most of the stories it contains were first published in EQMM. To celebrate the book’s publication we decided to have one of the stories recorded for this podcast series. Here is Darcy Bearman, Dell Magazines’ manager for social-media marketing, reading “The Gilbert and Sullivan Clue” by Jon L. Breen, first published in EQMM September/October 1999.

Canadian author Rob Brunet, a creative-writing instructor and cohost of Noir at the Bar Toronto, joins us in this episode in our podcast series. His evocative short stories, often set in the Kawarthas, have been appearing in EQMM since 2015. Here he is reading his story “Skinny’s Beach,” from the February 2016 issue of EQMM.http://www.robbrunet.com

Our selection this month is from the work of Jack Fredrickson, creator of the Dek Elstrom private eye series. The author made his fiction debut in EQMM’s Department of First Stories in 2002. We caught up with him at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Toronto, Canada in 2017, where he read his story “For the Jingle,” from the May 2009 issue of EQMM, for this podcast.

This month EQMM is making simultaneously available in print and audio podcast a Department of First Stories tale by Boston writer Edwin Hill. The author has also posted some reflections about his EQMM story, the upcoming publication of his first novel, and the editorial process on EQMM’s blog at www.somethingisgoingtohappen.net. A longtime editor, and the current vice president and editorial director for Bedford/St. Martin’s, his remarks should be of interest to many, especially writers. EQMM caught up to Edwin Hill at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Toronto, Canada, in 2017, where he recorded this podcast for us. Here he is reading “White Tights and Mary Janes,” from the January/February 2018 issue of EQMM.https://www.edwin-hill.com

2017’s Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Toronto, Canada had an international theme and drew writers from around the globe. One of those writers was Iceland’s Ragnar Jónasson, whose novels have made their way onto bestseller lists around the world in recent years. While at Bouchercon, EQMM had the pleasure of recording the author for our podcast series. Here he is reading his tale “A Letter to Santa,” originally published in the January 2015 issue of EQMM.http://ragnar-jonasson.squarespace.com

At the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Toronto, in mid October of this year, 1,700 authors and fans gathered from around the globe. U.K. writer Christine Poulson, author of the Cassandra James mysteries and the stand-alone thrillers Invisible and Cold, Cold Heart, attended and recorded her story “Roller-Coaster Ride,” from the December 2014 EQMM, for this podcast.http://www.christinepoulson.co.uk/

Our selection this month is from EQMM’s Passport to Crime department, which features stories in translation from around the world. Paul Halter is a bestselling author in his native France, and more of his work is becoming available in English, chiefly through the publisher Locked Room International. “The Wolf of Fenrir,” which first appeared in English in EQMM’s March/April 2015 issue, was translated by John Pugmire, who shares a few thoughts about Halter’s work prior to EQMM associate editor Jackie Sherbow’s reading of the story.http://lockedroominternational.comhttps://twitter.com/johnpugmire