Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Fiction Podcast

In this month's podcast, we are pleased to present multiple O. Henry Award winner Sheila Kohler reading her suspenseful, evocative tale "The Changing Room" from our January/February 2021 issue. https://sheilakohler.com/ https://www.purple-planet.com/

Our latest podcast episode features a celebrated story from our March/April 2022. Here is Anna Scotti's "Schrodinger, Cat,"  a Macavity Award nominee and third place finisher in our 2022 Readers Award poll.

We're pleased to share with you Twist Phelan's reading of "Judge Not," her highly entertaining story of a local judge who faces a serious ethical dilemma, from our May/June 2023 issue. "Judge Not" reached the highly commended category in the 2023 Irish Book Awards short story competition—the only crime fiction story to do so. 

Our latest podcast episode features the suspenseful tale of a nude model who finds herself posing for an eccentric and rather creepy artist. Here is "Rendering" by Sophia Lynch, one of the latest entries in EQMM's Department of First Stories. 

Our latest podcast episode will whisk listeners off to Paris for an adventure filled with fine food and wine, paired with a side of revenge. Here, from our March/April 2020 issue, is "City of Light" by Josh Pachter, one of EQMM's most prolific contributors and translators.

Andrew Welsh-Huggins is an accomplished author who has been nominated for Shamus, Derringer, and ITW Thriller awards. We're thrilled to feature his reading of "Home for the Holidays," a Christmastime thriller from our Jan/Feb 2020 issue, as the latest entry in our podcast series. 

When a murder strikes close to her granddaughter's music class, Private Investigator Jeannie Tannenbaum sets out to solve the case. Here is "The Picardy Third" by Jacqueline Freimor, originally published in our Jan/Feb 2023 issue. 

Our latest podcast features the story of two former high school football stars who return to their old stomping grounds for a big payday. This is Eli Cranor's "Double Fly Rocket 87" from our January/February 2022 issue. Cranor is a former professional football player whose novel Don't Know Tough won the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel.

Legendary author Michael Z. Lewin reads "Her Upstairs," his excellent story of Greek gods and cribbage from our July/August 2023 issue. Lewin is the creator of the the Albert Samson series of detective novels, the first regional series of of its kind.

Our August 2023 podcast episode features  "The Knight Wizard," an exciting new story in our July/August 2023 issue from frequent EQMM contributor Janice Law. 

Our latest podcast episode is another thrilling tale from Scottish journalist and author Pat Black, whose stories featuring Inspector Lomond have been appearing in EQMM since 2019. Here is "Twos on That" from our July/August 2023 issue. 

When EQMM began publication in 1941, it contained a number of reprints of classic short stories. Founding editor and genre expert Frederic Dannay believed that almost every well known author had a least one work that could be described as mystery or crime fiction. In this month’s episode, we present “Hush-a-Bye, My Baby” by the great Russian playwright and author Anton Chekhov, which was reprinted...

Alana's grandmother Mavis was a fantastic cook whose johnnycakes may have been the best in the Virgin Islands. But did an old family housekeeper steal Grandma Mavis's recipe? Find out in "Rise" by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, which appeared in our 2022 March/April issue. 

Our latest podcast episode features the Christmastime story of a woman, her cat, and revenge served with a dash of antifreeze. Here is Charlotte Hinger's "Lizzie Noel," from our November/December 2022 issue. Hinger is currently nominated for Spur Award from the Western Writers of America, and she is a member of the Colorado Authors Hall of Fame.

Joseph Goodrich is an Edgar Allan Poe Award-winning playwright whose productions have been shown from New York to San Francisco, and many other places. Goodrich also writes poetry, libretti, and short stories. "Shame the Devil" takes place in his home state of Minnesota. 

This month, we feature the work of Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence and International Thriller Award winner Twist Phelan, who is well known for her novel series: the Pinnacle Peak mysteries and the Finn Teller spy thrillers. The author is a prolific short-story writer, and here she reads two of her shorter-length stories: "Used to Be" and "It's A Small World (After All)" from the pages...

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Fiction Podcast is happy to release another inspired reading by one of our contributors. This time, we have a thrilling tale of art forgery and lofty aspirations that go awry. Here is "What Kind of Criminal" read by author LaToya Jovena. https://www.purple-planet.com/

The latest entry in our podcast series is a 1950s holiday story told by Hollis Seamon, a frequent contributor to EQMM whose story "Black Swallowtail" finished in third place in 2021's EQMM Reader's Award.  "Book Lovers" is a story that is sure to entertain mystery fans and lovers of classic literature alike.  https://www.purple-planet.com/

In this month's episode, W.W. Mauck—a U.S. Army veteran and Beloit College graduate who writes during the day around his night-shift job—reads his story "A Ghost for Marcy's Garden" from the Department of First Stories in our November/December 2022 issue. https://www.purple-planet.com

Elizabeth Elwood is the 2022 winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence in the short story category, for her 2021 EQMM story “Number 10 Marlborough Place.” For this episode in our podcast series she reads her story “The Light on the Lagoon,” which appears in the current issue of EQMM, September/October 2022. https://www.purple-planet.com/

EQMM was brought into the world by two writers who collaborated on nearly every piece of fiction they wrote, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. This month we feature a story by two writers who have collaborated with each other several times, most recently on a story for EQMM. Michael Bracken is the author of well over a thousand published short stories and he’s a recipient of the Edward D. Hoch M...

Our fiction podcast this month is a classic by author William Brittain, who wrote for EQMM from 1964 to 1983. It’s read by EQMM author and translator Josh Pachter, who has edited three collections of William Brittain’s stories. Here is “The Man Who Read John Dickson Carr,” from the December 1965 issue of EQMM. It was the first in a series of stories, all published in EQMM, whose titles begin “The...

This month in our podcast series we feature an Independence Day story by an award-winning writer for the Las Vegas Sun who made his fiction debut in EQMM’s Department of First Stories.  Just in time for July 4th,  here is Michael Grimala reading his story “A Trunk Full of Illegal Fireworks,” from the July/August 2021 issue of EQMM. https://www.purple-planet.com/

This month, Rob Osler reads his 2022 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award winning story “Analogue,” from our January/February 2021 issue. The author is a business writer who recently began writing fiction; he is at work on two mystery novels. “Analogue” is a satire of the business world while also being a twisty suspense tale. https://robosler.com https://www.purple-planet.com/

To introduce our May/June 2022 issue, we bring you Smita Harish Jain's reading of her latest story, "The Manglik Curse." Jain is an accomplished author who grew up in Mumbai and now lives in Virginia. Her work has appeared in a number of anthologies, as well as EQMM, where her first story "The Fraud of Dionysus" was one of the top-10 runners-up in EQMM 2021 Readers' Award poll. Listen on as Jain r...