Stories

Bloom
Mystery Shelly Jones Mystery Shelly Jones

Bloom

Irene hadn’t heard the lifeguard shouting from the shore. She liked to turn her hearing aids off when she could, reveling in the artificial silence of the lake in summer. If she were alone, the way she’d be in the off-season, without all the tourists shouting and guffawing, scaring away the wildlife, she’d keep them turned up high enough to hear the bright per-chick-o-ree of the Goldfinch or maybe, if she were lucky, the tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle tea of the Carolina Wren. But in the peak season, she’d have to contend with the crowds and the watchful eye of the lifeguard in order to get her morning exercise.

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Ghost Town
Mystery Carolee Anita Boyles Mystery Carolee Anita Boyles

Ghost Town

I was washing down the last bite of a very good hamburger with a diet soda when a special weather statement came on the TV above the bar. WINTER WEATHER WARNING read the banner. The announcer cut in over a generic sitcom that had been playing, predicting freezing rain and sleet, and black ice forming on Interstate 80 from Rawlins to Cheyenne by midnight.

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Gyotaku
Mystery, Offbeat Dean Crow Mystery, Offbeat Dean Crow

Gyotaku

My father papered the walls of his studio in crisp white washi, covered in schools of Gyotaku: ink prints of fish he’d caught throughout his career. I probe the paper like I’m noodling for a bite until I fumble on the light switch. The LEDs mimic natural light–my father would accept no less. He demanded his works be displayed bathed in sunlight. They usually are, I suppose, though an overpriced sushi restaurant or a software developer’s beach house probably isn’t what he had in mind. In the last month, all those pieces have been resold for ten times the original price. Even these walls are likely worth hundreds of thousands, now. My father was a much better businessman than I thought, if it’s true what they all say. If he meant to die.

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The Last Detail
Mystery, Dark Humor, Crime Judy Penz Sheluk Mystery, Dark Humor, Crime Judy Penz Sheluk

The Last Detail

It started with the grass clippings. I’d just finished mowing the front yard. True, the rows lacked the zigzag symmetry of the adjacent lawns, and the edges were a bit on the shaggy side—I hadn’t yet invested in one of those trimmer gizmos—but I was nonetheless pleased with my accomplishment.

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