Flash Fiction Friday: The Needle and the Haystack

I. The Haystack "We're looking for a white van," the policeman said, looming out of his patrol car in with a glare. His face was made for frowning and he had the weight and bulk of a boxer in his full and violent prime. "Well,"  the attendant said nervously, "y-you've certainly come to the right...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Pickpocket Queen of San Francisco

San Francisco 1900. It had been five hours since Big Tilda had been arrested, and she was very upset. The police had locked her in an interrogation room without any respect for her status or so much as a by-your-leave and had promptly forgotten her. It was downright disrespectful. Insulting even. She was the Pickpocket Queen...

Flash Fiction Friday: The Greatest Detective in the World

In a long, narrow building at the end of a long, narrow street lived the Greatest Detective in the World. He had never solved a single crime, but in his long life he had read countless mysteries, and devoured every true crime novel and newspaper report he could get his hands on. And he had...

“The Alchemist in the Attic” is Now Available

The Alchemist in the Attic is a historical mystery with occult undertones—a tale of rival newspapermen, murder, and alchemy in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. It is now available for a limited launch price of $0.99 on Amazon. Here is the Blurb and a Brief Excerpt: San Francisco 1899. As the city prepares to welcome the new century, a twisted killer enacts...

The Devil’s Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth

Simon Kurt Unsworth's The Devil's Detective is, as the title suggests, a hard-boiled detective novel set in Hell. Unsworth has crafted a tightly plotted noir mystery filled with a number of twists and turns, but the real strength of the novel is in its intricately realized depiction of Hell. Thomas Fool is an Information Man...

Walking the Labyrinth by Lisa Goldstein

Lisa Goldstein's Walking the Labyrinth is an atmospheric fantasy that incorporates a wide-array of influences from vaudeville to spiritualism and secret societies to classical mythology and witchcraft. Molly Travers is one of the last living descendants of the Allalie family, once an infamous group of vaudeville magicians. Her life changes when she's approached by John...

Emissary by Chris Rogers

Chris Rogers' Emissary is an odd hybrid of political thriller, murder mystery, and science fiction epic. There are a lot of moving parts with different characters and genres interacting and conflicting. Some elements will be more successful than others depending on the reader. Personally the science fiction concepts and the slow exploration and explanation of...

Artful by Peter David

Peter David's Artful is a tongue-in-cheek sequel to Oliver Twist that focuses, as the title suggests, on the Artful Dodger and, naturally, vampyres. Peter David is a self-proclaimed “writer of stuff” who is well practiced in the art of storytelling. I've read a number of his earlier works; mostly I'll admit his Star Trek tie-in...

Space Opera Noir — The Ultra Thin Man by Patrick Swenson

The Ultra Thin Man is a space opera noir following Dave Crowell and Alan Brindos, contract detectives for the Network Intelligence Organization as they attempt to unravel an interstellar conspiracy that stretches from the highest rungs of society to the terrorist Movement of Worlds, led by an alien giant, Terl Plenko. Swenson effortless adapts a...

The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero

The Supernatural Enhancements is a ghost story, a paranormal mystery, and a treasure hunt. Cantero weaves his narrative out of journal entries, letters, notes, video footage, audio recordings, psychiatrist reports, and excerpts from books on ghosts and cryptology. This style is not for everyone, and can be initially distracting, but Cantero makes good use of...