The Barrister's Clerk, by Michael Robertson

The Belle Hope, by Peter DiChellis

Arroyo, by Michael Bracken

Muskeg Man, by Keenan Powell

The End of the World, by Susan Breen

To Protect the Guilty, by Kerry Hammond

Dying in Dokesville, by Alan Orloff

The House in Glamaig's Shadow, by William Burton McCormick

Summer Smugglers, by Triss Stein

The Jamaican Ice Mystery, by John Gregory Betancourt

Death at the Congressional Cemetery, by Verena Rose

Cabin in the Woods, by Sylvia Maultash Warsh

Mad About You, by G. M. Malliet

What Goes Around, by Kathryn Johnson

Summer Job, by Judith Green

Death in a Strange and Beautiful Place, by Leslie Wheeler

We Shall Fight Them, by Carla Coupe

Marigold in the Lake, by Susan Thibadeau

Murder on the Northern Lights Express, by Susan Daly

Czech Mate, by Kristin Kisska

Keep Calm and Love Moai, by Eleanor Cawood Jones

Isaac's Daughters, by Anita Page

A Divination of Death, by Edith Maxwell

Payback With Interest, by Cheryl Marceau

Island Time, by Laura Oles

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Murder, by Josh Pachter

The Breaker Boy, by Harriette Sackler

Death on the Beach, by Shawn Reilly Simmons

Ridgeline, by Peter W. J. Hayes

Ho'oponopono, by Robin Templeton

Also features a new Foreword, by Nancy Pickard

At the cutting edge of crime fiction, Mystery Weekly Magazine presents original short stories by the world’s best-known and emerging mystery writers.

The stories we feature in our monthly issues span every imaginable subgenre, including cozy, police procedural, noir, whodunit, supernatural, hardboiled, humor, and historical mysteries. Evocative writing and a compelling story are the only certainty.

Get ready to be surprised, challenged, and entertained--whether you enjoy the style of the Golden Age of mystery (e.g., Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle), the glorious pulp digests of the early twentieth century (e.g., Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler), or contemporary masters of mystery.

In this issue

In our cover feature, “Runners” by Don McLellan, three desperate fugitives from a Soviet gulag arrive cold and hungry at a trapper's cabin high in the mountains. The old man offers food, dry clothing and directions to freedom, but then the food runs out.

“Last Call At The Bar Of Invariable Length” by Josh Pachter: A man walks into a bar in a sleepy South Carolina beach town, and what happens next is no joke.

“Blood Poisoning” by Joe Giordano: Laurel told her father not to get married. Now a homicide, gold-shield detective is involved.

“Playdate” by Dr Bella Ellwood-Clayton: How far will a mother go to protect her daughter from bullies?

In “The Word” by Bill Connor, Rennie, a homeless drunk, is coerced into helping a strange woman get rid of a killer cop.

“Hello, Cupcake!” by Alan Orloff: Looking to reconnect with an old flame? Watch your step or you might get burned!

In “The Smooth Joy Of One Good Step” by Michael Guillebeau. Bobby Earl's always gotten himself in trouble by living in the moment. But when a guard asks Bobby Earl to hold his rifle, he really should have thought more than one step ahead.

In “The Vulnerable Rind” by Joseph D'Agnese, a young Italian carabinieri officer launches an unofficial investigation into a series of trivial break-ins at a small cheesemonger's shop in Rome, with troubling results.

SOMETHING FISHY, by Michael Bracken

INSEPARABLE, INSUFFERABLE, by Alan Orloff

USE OF THE AWKWARD HAND, by Julie Leo

UMBERTO SCOLARI AND THE FEAST OF PARADISE, by Dayle A. Dermatis

MOE’S SEAFOOD HOUSE, by Ramona DeFelice Long

MUD SEASON, by Su Kopil

MESSIN’ WITH THE KID, by Steve Liskow

ASSASSIN’S SCROLL, by Tais Teng

TROUBLE IN MIND, by Cynthia Ward

Plus a bonus poem: THE TIMELINE MURDERS, by Janet Fox

Jewish Noir is a unique collection of new stories by Jewish and non-Jewish literary and genre writers, including numerous award-winning authors such as Marge Piercy, Harlan Ellison, S.J. Rozan, Nancy Richler, Moe Prager (Reed Farrel Coleman), Wendy Hornsby, Charles Ardai, and Kenneth Wishnia. The stories explore such issues as the Holocaust and its long-term effects on subsequent generations, anti-Semitism in the mid- and late-twentieth-century United States, and the dark side of the Diaspora (the decline of revolutionary fervor, the passing of generations, the Golden Ghetto, etc.). The stories in this collection also include many “teachable moments” about the history of prejudice, and the contradictions of ethnic identity and assimilation into American society.

Stories include:

“A Simkhe” (A Celebration), first published in Yiddish in the Forverts in 1912 by one of the great unsung writers of that era, Yente Serdatsky. This story depicts the disillusionment that sets in among a group of Russian Jewish immigrant radicals after several years in the United States. This is the story’s first appearance in English.

“Trajectories,” Marge Piercy’s story of the divergent paths taken by two young men from the slums of Cleveland and Detroit in a rapidly changing post-World War II society.

“Some You Lose,” Nancy Richler’s empathetic exploration of the emotional and psychological challenges of trying to sum up a man’s life in a eulogy.

“Her Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah,” Rabbi Adam Fisher’s darkly comic profanity-filled monologue in the tradition of Sholem Aleichem, the writer best known as the source material for Fiddler on the Roof (minus the profanity, that is).

“Flowers of Shanghai,” S.J. Rozan’s compelling tale of hope and despair set in the European refugee community of Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II.

“Yahrzeit Candle,” Stephen Jay Schwartz’s take on the subtle horrors of the inevitable passing of time.