Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Fiction Podcast

One of EQMM’s most famous features is the Department of First Stories. Over the decades, many important authors in the field have debuted there. This month we present a story from that department. “Just Below the Surface” by Robert Shepherd appeared in the March/April 2017 EQMM. Here is the Michigan author reading his first published fiction.

Agatha Award winner G.M. Malliet has penned two critically acclaimed series of traditional mystery novels. An American who currently lives in the Washington D. C. area, she traveled widely growing up, and almost always chooses British settings for her fiction. Here she is reading her story “The Oxford Tarts,” from the March/April 2017 EQMM.http://gmmalliet.com

In EQMM’s June 2015 issue, Helena Edwards made her fiction debut with a story that had previously been short-listed for the Margery Allingham Short Story Competition, sponsored by Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association. Here she is reading that memorable first story, “If Anything Happens to Me.”

Department of First Stories author E. Gabriel Flores reads her debut tale, “The Truth of the Moment,” for this episode in our podcast series. The story won the 2016 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for best short story by a new American author. It was first published in the December 2016 issue of EQMM.http://merenguemysteries.com/

This month we’re delighted to present a reading by author Paul D. Marks of the most recent winner of the EQMM Readers Award, his tale “Ghosts of Bunker Hill,” published in the December 2016 EQMM. A native of Los Angeles, Paul Marks evokes that city’s history hauntingly in this story, the first in a series featuring private eye Howard Hamm.www.pauldmarks.com

This month’s episode is from the private-eye genre, the second in a series of stories featuring an offbeat former newspaper reporter turned P.I. The author, Peter Hochstein, is himself a former newspaper reporter who has had a number of novels published under various pseudonyms. Here is Peter Hochstein reading his darkly humorous tale “The Client, the Cat, the Wife, and the Autopsy,” from our January/February 2017 issue.http://peterhochstein.com/

Our selection this month is a clever script from The Adventures of Ellery Queen radio series of the late 1930s and the 1940s. “The Adventure of the Man Who Could Double the Size of Diamonds” (which was reprinted in EQMM in May 1943 and August 2005) is read here by Mark Lagasse.

Novelist and short-story writer Marilyn Todd has been contributing to EQMM since 2000, when she appeared in our May issue with the first short story in her series of mysteries set in Ancient Rome. She has since become one of EQMM’s most prolific and popular contributors, sending us stories from a variety of different time periods, including a few, like the one we feature this month, that are set near our own time. “The Old Man and the Seashore” by Marilyn Todd, from the January 2016 EQMM, is read for this podcast by Mandie Davis.http://www.marilyntodd.com

Writer and reviewer Steve Steinbock is best known for his criticism in the mystery field; EQMM readers are sure to have read his numerous special-feature articles and interviews for us, as well as “The Jury Box” book-review column, where he has been at the helm since 2011. Steve is also an author of fiction, having debuted in our Department of First Stories in the March/April 2010 issue. The author reads that first story, “Cleaning Up,” in our first podcast of the new year.

Throughout 2016 Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine has been celebrating its 75th anniversary. This last recording for 2016 is particularly appropriate for an anniversary celebration. Harry Kemelman is one of a number of notable authors who got their start in the pages of EQMM. The creator of the bestselling Rabbi David Small series, his work first appeared in print in the April 1947 issue of EQMM. He had entered the magazine’s second annual worldwide short story contest, and was awarded, along with two other new writers, a special prize, along with publication of his story. Reading that first, award-winning Kemelman story, “The Nine Mile Walk,” for this podcast is EQMM’s book reviewer, Steve Steinbock. www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm

Part 4 of EQMM’s 75th-Anniversary Symposium, recorded at Columbia University’s Butler Library on September 30, 2016. Joyce Carol Oates reads from her story "Big Momma" from the March/April 2016 issue of EQMM. Janet Hutchings, Jennifer B. Lee, and Sean Quimby offer closing remarks. Audio and video by Ché Ryback. On September 30, 2016, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Columbia University’s Butler Library celebrated the magazine’s 75th anniversary with a half-day symposium. This symposium will be presented here in four parts. For more information on the symposium, the anniversary, and the EQMM exhibition, please visit TheMysteryPlace.com/eqmm.

Part 3 of EQMM’s 75th-Anniversary Symposium, recorded at Columbia University’s Butler Library on September 30, 2016. Panel: EQMM's Editors at Work. Featuring Russell Atwood, Otto Penzler, Josh Pachter, and Joseph Goodrich (moderator). Audio and video by Ché Ryback. On September 30, 2016, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Columbia University’s Butler Library celebrated the magazine’s 75th anniversary with a half-day symposium. This symposium will be presented here in four parts. For more information on the symposium, the anniversary, and the EQMM exhibition, please visit TheMysteryPlace.com/eqmm.

Part 2 of EQMM’s 75th-Anniversary Symposium, recorded at Columbia University’s Butler Library on September 30, 2016. Panel: A Brush With Death: Crime Fiction Cover Art and Illustration from the Pulps to the Present. Featuring Janet Salter Rosenberg, Laurie Harden, Tom Roberts, and Jonathan Santlofer (moderator). Audio and video by Ché Ryback.On September 30, 2016, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Columbia University’s Butler Library celebrated the magazine’s 75th anniversary with a half-day symposium. This symposium will be presented here in four parts. For more information on the symposium, the anniversary, and the EQMM exhibition, please visit TheMysteryPlace.com/eqmm.

On September 30, 2016, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Columbia University’s Butler Library celebrated the magazine’s 75th anniversary with a half-day symposium. This symposium will be presented here in four parts. For more information on the symposium, the anniversary, and the EQMM exhibition, please visit TheMysteryPlace.com/eqmm.Part 1 of EQMM’s 75th-Anniversary Symposium, recorded at Columbia University’s Butler Library on September 30, 2016. Introduction by Sean Quimby; panel "Making Mystery Matter: EQMM and the Shaping of American Crime and Detective Fiction," featuring Sarah Weinman, Leah Pennywark, Jeffrey Marks, and Charles Ardai. Audio and video by Ché Ryback.

Actor, short-story writer, poet, and Edgar Award winning playwright Joseph Goodrich helped EQMM celebrate its 75th anniversary with a story featuring EQMM founding editor Frederic Dannay and his friend and fellow writer Dashiell Hammett. Published in the August 2016 EQMM, “The Ten-Cent Murder” is read by the author for this podcast.

This month we feature one of the stories that won EQMM’s Readers Award for 2015, “Rizzo’s Good Cop.” Its author, Lou Manfredo, is known for the authenticity of his crime fiction. The story, from his series featuring Brooklyn cop Joe Rizzo, was first published in the December 2015 EQMM and is read for us by the author.www.loumanfredo.com

Novelist and short-story writer Brendan DuBois has been contributing to EQMM for twenty years. He is a master at evoking the undercurrents to small-town life, and in 2015 he came in second in EQMM's annual Readers Award competition for just such a story. Here he is reading “The Lake Tenant” (EQMM November 2015), his winning story.www.brendandubois.com

A Department of First Stories tale is featured in this month’s episode in our podcast series. And it’s one that went on to win the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for best short story by a new American author. Russell W. Johnson is a North Carolina lawyer who writes in his spare time; he has already shown a great mastery of plot and misdirection. On a recent trip to New York City, he made this recording.

In the March/April 2016 issue, EQMM’s Passport to Crime Department featured “The Lighthouse” by Belgian writer Hilde Vandermeeren. The winner of a number of awards for her fiction, including the Hercule Poirot Public Award, Hilde Vandermeeren was a practicing psychologist before turning full time to fiction writing, and that background shows in this tale of psychological suspense, which is read by the story’s translator, Josh Pachter.hildevandermeeren.com/english

EQMM has unearthed another episode in the series of Edward D. Hoch radio plays our listeners have enjoyed over the past several years. Based on the series character Dr. Sam Hawthorne, these dramatizations are the work of radioman Dave Amaral and were originally recorded in the 1970s. In this case, the New England country doctor must solve a murder in a house that appears to be haunted. “The Problem of the Whispering House” was first published in EQMM in April, 1979.