April News from the Short Mystery Fiction Society

 Following a brief delay to allow recognition of the winners of the 2025 Derringer Awards (and a huge congratulations to them all!), here's a roundup of just some of the terrific April publications and other news from the ever-prolific members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society.  Readers take note--there could well be some future Derringer winners here!

The May/June issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine--still on sale now!--included work from a number of SMFS members.  Paul Ryan O'Connor's "Shamus & Buster" draws on many parts of the spectrum of mystery fiction, as an alley cat teams up with a police detective to solve his master's murder.  Meanwhile, in "A Short Madness," Josh Pachter (winner of the 2025 Derringer for Best Short Story!) spins the yarn of a locked-room murder, as relayed to a reporter decades later in 1917 Belgium.

SMFS is also well-represented in the May/June Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.  John M. Floyd brings us "Heading West," in which a struggling rancher and his wife face a tornado and train robbers in the Old West, while Kevin Egan's "Buds" is the impressive 18th story in his series set in the New York County Courthouse. 

 

(Writers looking for valuable tips from some of the best in the game should also know that both AHMM writers discuss their stories in detail in recent blog posts, John at SleuthSayers and Kevin at Trace Evidence.  More writerly insight comes from SMFS member Jennifer Slee, whose "Taking a Bite Out of Food Crime" at MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL discusses the real-life origins of one of her stories.)

In anthology news, the ever-prolific John Floyd is also among several SMFS members contributing to SLEUTHS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN: PRIVATE EYES IN THE MATERIALISTIC EIGHTIES, edited by SMFS all-star Michael Bracken.  John's inventive "Redwood Creek" weaves a puzzle plot around clues from the Oscar-winning films of the decade, while Debra H. Goldstein tackles the biggest whodunit of the period in "Who Shot J.R.?"  SMFS President Joseph S. Walker offers "The Right Size of Favor," in which a novice PI has to figure out who's trying to derail the Hands Across America charity event.  And check that fantastic cover!

Michael is also the editor of TROUBLE IN TEXAS: METROPLEX MYSTERIES VOLUME IV, the latest in the terrific series of anthologies from the North Dallas chapter of Sisters in Crime, featuring a foreword by Joseph S. Walker.  Veteran writer M. E. Proctor's contribution is "Goldenrod," in which PI Harry McLean investigates an art theft nobody seems to want to talk about. 

 

April was an especially great month for M. E., whose novel BOP CITY SWING, coauthored with Russell Thayer, is a hard-hitting story of a cop and a hitwoman racing to solve a murder in 1951 San Francisco.  Another San Francisco novel-length adventure, this one involving a shapeshifter you won't soon forget, comes from SMFS member Annie Reed in GUARDIANS OF THE BAY.

April produces another standout anthology with MALICE DOMESTIC 19: MYSTERY MOST HUMOROUS, featuring a number of SMFS all-stars.  Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier brings us "Six-Armed Robbery," featuring a group of renegade 12-year-olds in a standoff with a tyrannical nun, and Gregory Meece delivers "The Ladder Runs Both Ways," with a summer job leading to an unusual, and dangerous, opportunity.

Over in THE THIRD BLACK BEACON BOOK OF MYSTERY, Christina Hoag's "Take Care of Zozo for Me" gives us a parolee trying to recover a stolen gold statue and facing some stiff competition.  In S. B. Watron's "The Lunt," the writer puts some masterful twists on the genre as an amateur sleuth tackles the mysterious murder of a Scottish laird.

Proving once again that SMFS authors are not restricted to writing about crime, and having a very productive month Veronica Leigh's "Dance With Me," in EVER AFTER: VOLUME ONE, is a moving romance novella about a woman learning to dance for her wedding, even as doubts begin to surface.  At THE PEOPLE'S FRIEND, her "Sweet Nothings" concerns a woman wondering how to identify her secret admirer.  But don't worry--Veronica hasn't abandoned mystery!  In "Triple Rib Stitch," her contribution to DETECTIVES, SLEUTHS, & NOSY NEIGHBORS: DYING FOR AN ANSWER, a sheriff doing a wellness check on an elderly lady is surprised to find her with a knitting needle buried in her chest.

Another lauded SMFS member strays from the confines of mystery in Judy Penz Sheluk's "Author, Author," at Thema, inspired by Judy's own first author experience at a big box bookstore.  She dares you not to feel a tear welling up at the ending of this one!

Another unusual death features in Shari Held's "A Stinging Rebuke," available online at YELLOW MAMA.  When a farmer dies by bee sting, is it an accident or something more sinister?

Also available online, at BRIEF WILDERNESS, is SMFS member Abe Margel's "Dancing With Kayla" in which marital disagreements over money lead to much larger problems.  At TOUGH, Steve Liskow gives us "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch," in which a teenager confronts a racist boss in 1965.  And at KILLER NASHVILLE, Barbara Ristine's "No One Found It Curious That Grandfather Left Without His Oil Paints" is a fiendish little piece of murderous fun.

Finally, for those who like their mystery in audio form, the MYSTERIES TO DIE FOR podcast has a treat for you in Debra H. Goldstein's "Opera Dinner Club," a sneak peek at an anthology coming soon.  Look for news of that, and other SMFS May news, at the start of June.  Happy reading!