SMFS Members Published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: November/December 2022

Today is release day and several SMFS list members have stories in the Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine: November/December 2022 issue. The issue is available at the publisher, Amazon, and other vendors. Those members are:

 

Dayle A. Dermatis with “Thicker Than Syrup But Not as Sweet.”

 

Eve Fisher with "The Closing of the Lodge."

 

Jeff Marks with “Disco Is Dead.”

 

O’Neil De Noux with “The Other French Detective.”

 

Susan Oleksiw with “The Deacon’s Mistake.”

 

Mark Thielman with "A Rat Tale."

 

Website Description:

Et tu, Brute?

Where there is affection or loyalty, there is the potential for betrayal. And when a crime involves a victim, their pain will be compounded when betrayal is involved, whether it be of trust, of confidence, or of duty. But while crime may often mean letting someone down, as chronicled by many of the stories in this issue, you can always trust AHMM to provide exciting and satisfying reading.

Betrayal within a family may cut the deepest, as an attorney with a drinking problem exemplifies in Eve Fisher’s “The Closing of the Lodge.” Meanwhile, a trusted aunt’s good deed backfires in Janice Law’s “The Nephew,” while ending a family legacy is a fraught decision is Dayle A. Dermatis’s “Thicker Than Syrup But Not as Sweet.” And a foster child’s sudden source of money sets off alarm bells and a cascade of lamentable events in “The Deacon’s Mistake” by Susan Oleksiw.

Disguise is another form of betrayal that shows up this issue. Turn of the century New Orleans detective Jacques Dugas receives visits from two men both claiming to be the same Parisian investigator on the trail of a murderess in O’Neil De Noux’s “The Other French Detective.” The theater can be a space where predators may assume new roles, as Elliot Sweeney’s P.I. Dylan Kaspar discovers in “Bad Actor.” And a young employee at a skating rink in the seventies learns that a friendly and personable customer is not what he appears in Jeff Marks’s “Disco Is Dead.” 

A duty to protect is breached as World War I American soldiers set up camp in a French village in Chris Muessig’s “Les Souvenirs Brodeur.” Dr. John Watson travels to Germany to accept a literary award, and discovers a new threat in the incipient political climate, in “An Insignificant Statistic” by James Tipton. And a knowledge of local botany aids a South African journalist and her housekeeper as they attempt to fend off terrorist militants who have invaded their farmhouse in Leigh Lundin’s “The Precatory Pea.”

Other stories in this issue showcase the characters’ wits. In “A Rat Tale” by Mark Thielman, a sixteenth-century avocat must defend the indefensible: rats charged with theft for feeding on farmers’ barley in fields and storehouses. While it’s a common trope for an investigator to find that he or she has a personal stake in an investigation, Dave Zeltserman takes that to the next level in “Fay and Wray.” A new department head tests the stamina and patience of an English prof in Jane K. Cleland’s “The Witch.” And a down and out ex-ballplayer has his last throw for justice in Pamela Blackwood’s “The Finale.”

We trust that this issue’s entertaining collection of tales will reassure you, the reader, of our commitment to serving your reading pleasure.

Get your copy now!