The Short Mystery Fiction Society Blog

Sunday, November 8, 2026

A Cornucopia of Great Reads from the Short Mystery Fiction Society

The past few weeks have seen a virtual explosion of great new publications from the talented writers of the Short Mystery Fiction Society! Looking to get away from AI slop and doomscrolling? Treat yourself to some of these terrific tales!

Leading off with bittersweet news: for the last several years, Black Cat Weekly has provided lovers of mystery, sci-fi, and pulp adventure with hundreds of pages a week of new and classic tales. Sadly, that run has come to an end with issue #270, which includes stories by, among many others, SMFS's Bobbi Chukran and Paula Messina, following up stories in other recent issues by such stalwarts as Barb Goffman, Michael Bracken, and Debra Goldstein. The whole run of the magazine is still available for purchase, at least for the time being--grab 'em while you can! And on November 13, look for the first issue of the new Black Cat Mysteries from Level Best Books, including stories from Joseph S. Walker Gabriel Valjan, Karen A. Phillips and others. The legacy lives on!
Don't forget the other new player on the crime fiction scene--SMFS Mystery Magazine! Featuring powerhouse stories, essays and reviews from Ginny Swart, Mat Coward, Eve Fisher, S. B. Watson, Gerald Elias, Jim Guigli, Ed Teja, N. M. Cedeňo, Kevin R. Tipple, Me. Proctor, June Lorraine Roberts, Vinnie Hansen, and Nikki Knight, this first issue is a sure-fire collector's item!
Another new mystery magazine has arrived! Umbra hosts John M. Floyd's "Rainbow's End"!
The annual release of The Best American Mystery and Suspense is always cause for celebration! The 2026 edition, from series editor Steph Cha and guest editor Megan Abbott, includes contributions from Mark Thielman, Gabriela Stiteler, and M. E. Proctor, alongside many others. It's always a pleasure to see SMFS represented in these august pages!
Another annual volume that always delivers is Best New England Crime Stories. This year's edition, Death Camas, includes stories from Zakariah Johnson and Steve Liskow, with many other New England authors and setting chiming in. A highlight of any reader's shelf!

Another not-to-be-missed annual volume is the Bouchercon anthology. Coming from this year's Calgary conference, The Lines We Cross includes stories from John M. Floyd and donalee Moulton!
From the minds that brought you the podcast Mysteries to Die For comes Stuff That Can Kill You, stories of everyday hazards turned into the perfect murder weapons. Twisty tales from a murderer's row of top-noth writers, including Robert J. Binney, Wil A. Emerson, Kathleen Kalb and Ed Teja!

Staying on the anthology tip, Songs to Woody features authors including Zakariah Johnson and Stephen M. Pierce paying tribute to the great Woody Guthrie through stories and poems bringing his populist drive to the present day. Timely and thrilling!
Abe Margel is among the writers bringing you to the dark side in the anthology Midnight Madness: A Carnival of Nightmares!
Check out this double whammy from SMFS all-star Bobbi Chuckran: the spine-tingling Kindle Single The Spectre of Eleanor Sutton--A Ghostly Tale and, for even more tales of terror, her collection Halloween Thirteen: A Collection of Spooky & Strange Short Stories. Halloween may be over, but it's never too late for a good scare!
Close to the Bone brings hard-hitting, bleak boxing noir to the masses in Jonas Paterno's Stumblebums!
The anthology Illusive Worlds: Sweet, Funny and Strange Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy brings together a host of stories to keep you turning the pages, including Debra H. Goldstein's "My Pinball Knight"!
At Ratbag, James Patrick Focarile tells us about "Some Other Time"!
Yellow Mama issue #118 brings a touch of noir with a score of great stories, including Sandra Cady's "New Orleans Bound" and Joseph S. Walker's "Things That Never Happened at a Place That Doesn't Exist"!
Mystery Tribune checks in with Bobbi Chuckran's "Saturday Night at the Hideout Hotel" and Abe Margel's "Weather Report"!
At Literary Garage, check out a bit of flash fiction brilliance with K. C. Selby's "The Silk Target"!

Over in the virtual pages of Guilty Crime Story Magazine, Jessica Slee offers up "The Copycat"!
On Instagram, Nick Guthrie has launched a news series of shorts for your pleasure with Nick's Briefs!
Congratulations to SMFS's own G.M. Malliet for taking first prices in the comedy category in the Writer's Digest 95th annual competition! Jennifer and Jessica Slee also took honors, with their co-authored "Sand Trap" in 14th place and Jennifer's "Pawn Sacrifice" in 15th!
As always, SMFS authors are not confined to writing short stories! In K.L. Abrahamson's The Memory Palace, a seasoned detective investigates a case that forces her to confront her own mother's fading memories, and a truth she may not be ready to face!
And in Veronica Leigh's Eye for an Eye: A Lady Sheriff Mystery, a widow takes on her late husband's sheriff position, bringing justice to a small town!
M. E. Proctor brings us the latest in his fan-favorite Declan Shaw series with The Way You Say My Name!
SMFS authors are scholars of the form as well! For evidence, look no farther than donalee Moulton's "The Trials and Tribulations of Researching Life--and Death--in 1734," in the new issue of the invaluable Mystery Readers Journal.

Wow! An awesome month for mystery lovers--and there's more to come before 2026 closes! Watch this space!

Wednesday, October 7, 2026

A Plethora of Pulse-Pounding Pages as the Short Mystery Fiction Society Enters a New Age!

As we turn the corner into the final quarter of 2026, the multi-talented writers of the Short Mystery Fiction Society are continuing to give readers their best. Check out these fantastic recent releases!

SMFS recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, so what better way to start our next thirty than with the launch of SMFS Mystery Magazine? The first issue is available now, from editor John Connor and Murderous Ink Press. Get in on the ground floor of this exciting new publication, with stories, interviews and essays from SMFS members like Ginny Swart, Mat Coward, Eve Fisher, S. B. Watson, Gerald Elias, Jim Guigli, Ed Teja, N. M. Cedeňo, Kevin R. Tipple, Me. Proctor, June Lorraine Roberts, Vinnie Hansen, and Nikki Knight. A powerhouse gang of scribes, and look for more issues coming in 2027!
It's that time of year again, with the release of The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2026--and as always, SMFS is well represented, with stories from Richard Helms ("The Twenty-Fourth Canterbury"), Christina Hoag ("No Evidence"), Billie Livingston ("The Headache"), and Tom Milani ("Mill Mountain"). As always, not to be missed!
From Level Best Books, editors Peter W. J. Hayes and Deborah Well bring us Crime Before Our Time: Crime Fiction and Mystery Inspired by History, with stories ranging across thousands of years and multiple cultures. Among the SMFS stalwarts on hand are Shari Held ("Women's Rites"), Robert Lopresti ("The Crossing"), Roberta Gibson ("On the Road to Honzhou") donalee Moulton ("Le Pain"), and K. C. Selby ("An Apprentice in Paris"). Forget the woes of the present in these yarns of the past!
If you like crime stories based on history, you'll love crime stories based on urban legends (they're sort of history, right?)! That's what you'll find in Hooked on Urban Legends--and Murder! from editors Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman, and Marcia Talley. We all know urban legends--those things that happened to a cousin's best friend's roommate, we swear! Here they're turned into riveting stories of crime and suspense by authors including SMFS's Joseph S. Walker ("The Things We Remember"), Jane Limprecht ("Every Dog Has Her Day"), Alan Orloff ("Face to Face"), Shari Held ("The House of Blue Lights Revisited"), Shannon Taft ("The Cave Man"), Kathryn Holland ("A Knocking at Fairweather Hall") and Barb Goffman ("Into the Woods"). Leave the lights on for this one!
For years, Black Cat Weekly has given lovers of crime, sci fi, and pulp hundreds of pages of new and classic stories every week. The magazine is its final stretch (though look for news of the new Black Cat Mysteries coming soon!), but there's still time to check out what you've been missing, including stellar recent contributions from the likes of Marcelle Dube, Shari Held, and John Floyd. They'll be talking about BCW's legendary run for years, so don't miss out!
And of course, SMFS writers continue to dazzle in magazines and websites every single month. Looking for examples? The latest issue of Thrill Ride Magazine features fast-paced stories of capers, including "Lay Down your Money, Play Your Part" from SMFS's Robert J. Binney!
Woman's World proves every week that short mysteries can pack a powerful punch, most recently with K. C. Selby's "The Blank Space"!
Kings River Life brings us Stephen M. Pierce's "Rattle the Gates of Your Cell!"
Neon and Smoke offers Raymond J' Brash's "Flower Girl"!
Literary Garage has M. E.Proctor's "A Drive in Marion County"!
New Myths hosts "Jumpin' Jack" from the modern master of the mystery short, John M. Floyd!
House of Long Shadows is where you'll find S. B. Watson's "Don Cosme's Gold," an unforgettable story of greed and curses!
And finally, for those who like their thrills in audio form, the podcast Mysteries to Die For has fair-play fun with Robert J. Binney's "Ping"!

That wraps up another exciting month! Remember, the Short Mystery Fiction Society is always free to join, and welcomes writers, readers, editors, and anyone else who loves mysteries and the short story form. We're saving a place for you!

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Fall into Great Reading with the Short Mystery Fiction Society!

Absurdly unseasonal heat waves notwithstanding, summer is winding down and autumn is hurtling in. Whether you're sheltering in the AC or taking in the breezes in a backyard hammock, there's no better companion than great reading--so check out these recent releases from the talented scribes of the Short Mystery Fiction Society!

From Crippen and Landru, editors Gigi Pandian and Tom Mead bring us All the Crime in the World: Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Puzzles from Across the Globe. Authors from North and South America, Australia, Asia and Europe come together with new tales celebrating one of the classic forms of the mystery tale, the locked room puzzle. SMFS Golden Derringer winner Josh Pachter joins the fun with "The Allegory of the Five Senses," set in 1859 Belgium. Sure to be one of the year's best anthologies!
Sticking with the international theme, the latest edition of the award-winning Crimeucopia anthology series is Canadian Chronicles, chock full of dynamite tales from writers north of the border. SMFS is well represented, with contributions from Judy Penz Sheluk, Karen Keeley, donalee Moulton, Merrilee Robson and Abe Margel. With Bouchercon Calgary coming up, what better time to get to know some of the top Canadian writers?
Abe Margel is also among the contributors to Legends: Monsters that Go Bump in the Night, a collection of spine-tingling tales of creatures from myth and legend. In Margel's "It Was No Stroll in the Park," we encounter the obscure Jewish notion of gigul, the reincarnation of souls, in a most surprising way.
SMFS's Rob Lopresti brings us "Catch as Cat Can" in Midnight Mousers: 12 Original Cat Tales. Is there any better pairing than cats and mystery fiction?
Now available for your digital pleasure and coming soon to physical shelves, the Sept/Oct issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is the 85th anniversary issue of the flagship periodical for short crime fiction. Absolutely not to be missed! Josh Pachter is here, collaborating with the late great William Bankier on a new story and and sharing his EQ memories in an essay as well. Also present are SMFS members David Dean, Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, Anna Scotti and Dave Zeltserman. Sure to be a collector's item!
Not to be outdone, the Sept/Oct Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine has offerings from a bevy of today's finest writers, including SMFS's Kevin Egan and Rob Lopresti. They'd look great on the shelf together!
Black Cat Weekly continues to bring its readers the best value in fiction today, with hundreds of pages week of mystery, sci-fi, and pulp goodness. Highlights of recent issues include stories by Shannon Taft, Paula Messina, Josh Pachter and Jennifer Slee. Don't let a single issue get by you--it's a highlight of every week!
More great value comes in the 27th issue of Mystery, Crime and Mayhem! Among the contributors to this spring break themed issue are donalee Moulton and David H. Hendrickson. As the temps fall, you'll be brought back to the beach!
Turning to online reads, the prolific Terena Elizabeth Bell has two recent stories sure to please: "Mall of America" at Turn & Work and "As We Go Along" at Americana UK. You'll come away wondering how somebody can write this much and make everything this good!
Sometimes petty theft has serious consequences. For proof, just check out Gregory Meece's "Take a Penny" at Literary Garage!
More thrills in another small package come with Tom Milani's "The Nice Garage" at Pistol Jim. The read is fast, but the memory will last!

And that's another terrific month of reads from the Short Mystery Fiction Society! Remember, membership is free and open to all writers, readers, editors and others interested in short crime and mystery fiction. We're saving a place for you!