Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Fiction Podcast

A story on a very unusual theme is featured in our podcast series this month. Linguist, novelist, and short-story writer Edith Maxwell tells the tale of a hyperpolyglot—someone with an extraordinary ability to quickly learn many different languages—who turns her talent to criminal purposes. The author, a current Agatha Award nominee, is also the reader for this podcast of “One Too Many,” from the...

Our selection this month is by one of our genre’s most celebrated critics, Francis M. Nevins, a former law professor who has also authored a number of well-received novels and short stories. For this podcast, the St. Louis author reads his story “Night of Silken Snow” in conjunction with Christine Gilsinan. The story first appeared in the November 1994 issue of EQMM. Thank you to Rae Purdom, Jonat...

The tale featured this month in EQMM’s podcast series is by an author who was celebrated in 2017 as guest of honor at the Magna Cum Murder mystery conference. Terence Faherty is the author of two popular series of novels, one the Edgar-nominated Owen Keane mysteries, the other the multiple Shamus Award-winning Scott Elliott private eye series. He is also an Edgar-nominated short story writer whose...

Christmas mysteries have appeared regularly in EQMM’s December or January issues over the years. A frequent contributor of those stories is New York Times best-selling author Steve Hockensmith, whose Edgar-nominated Amlingmeyer Brothers series first saw print in our pages. Last year, his EQMM Christmas tale was an entry in the Amlingmeyer Brothers series. Here he is reading that story, entitled “M...

A selection from EQMM’s Passport to Crime department is featured in this episode of our podcast series. Dutch writer René Appel is a two-time winner of the Golden Noose Award for best crime novel—the Dutch equivalent of the U.S.’s Edgar Allan Poe Award. He has written or cowritten several stories for EQMM. His translator and sometime collaborator is frequent EQMM contributor Josh Pachter, whom you...

In this episode of our podcast series we provide listeners with the opportunity to hear a story that is currently nominated for a major award in the mystery field. The Macavity Awards, sponsored by Mystery Readers International, will be presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Dallas, Texas (which runs from October 31 to November 3). In the short-story category, screenwriter, noveli...

An short-story writer whose many honors include the 2019 Agatha Award for best short story, Tara Laskowski will debut as a novelist next month with a thriller that has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. For this installment in our podcast series she reads her story from the Black Mask Department of EQMM’s July/August 2019 issue, “The Long-Term Tenant." http://taralaskowski.com https...

Author of well over 1,000 published short stories, Michael Bracken is possibly the most prolific short-story writer currently working in the mystery genre. He has won two Derringer Awards from the Short Mystery Fiction Society and is a recipient of the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement in short mystery fiction. “Oystermen,” which the author read for us at the...

Josh Pachter took second place in the EQMM Readers Award competition for 2018 with a story that commemorates his EQMM debut of fifty years earlier. Author of more than 100 published stories in the half century between his debut at the age of 17 and the publication of his 50th-anniversary tale, the author is equally well known to EQMM readers as a translator for our Passport to Crime department. He...

David Dean took third place in the EQMM Readers Award voting for 2018. The former chief of police has been writing fiction for nearly thirty years and recently sold his fiftieth short story to EQMM. He has been nominated for nearly every major award in the field and is a past winner of the EQMM Readers Award. Here is the scroll-winning story “Sofee” by David Dean, read by the author.

Stacy Woodson, the most recent winner of the EQMM Readers Award, made her fiction debut in EQMM’s Department of First Stories in the November/December 2018 issue. That debut story is only the second first story in the thirty-four years of Readers Award history to take first place. While in New York City for the awards ceremony last month, the Washington D.C. area author read her winning tale for t...

One of the current nominees for the Malice Domestic Convention’s Agatha Awards (winners to be determined in May), our featured story this month is set at a most unusual Thanksgiving dinner. Author Barb Goffman’s many previous honors include the Agatha, Macavity, and Silver Falchion awards. Here she is reading “Bug Appétit,” her EQMM debut, from our November/December 2018 issue. http://www.barbgoff...

Currently nominated for both the MWA’s Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Malice Domestic Convention’s Agatha Award for best short story, our selection this month is by Art Taylor, who debuted in EQMM’s Department of First Stories in 1995 and has become a star in the field of the mystery and crime short story. Here he is reading “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” from the July/August 2018 EQMM. Both the...

A tale from Edgar nominee John Lantigua’s popular Willie Cuesta private eye series is featured in this episode of our podcast series. Readers are sure to enjoy this intriguing case, set in Miami’s Little Havana. Here is “The Cuban Prisoner” by John Lantigua, originally published in the September/October 2018 issue of EQMM and read for us by professional actor and voiceover artist Carlos Alayeto. h...

Teresa Solana received a nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for her first contribution to EQMM, “Still Life No. 41.” The story was translated from Catalan by her husband, Peter Bush, and was featured in EQMM’s Passport to Crime department in March/April 2012. Reading that celebrated story for this podcast is EQMM’s associate editor, Jackie Sherbow. The tale is also included in a new digital...

Edgar Allan Poe Award winner John Morgan Wilson has been contributing short stories to EQMM since 2003. Many listeners will know his long fiction, which includes the Benjamin Justice mystery series and several novels cowritten with band leader Peter Duchin. The California author’s short stories range from suspense to the classical whodunit. For this podcast he chose to read his twisty tale “Edward...

This month’s podcast takes us back to 1968 and the debut of one of EQMM’s youngest contributors ever, Josh Pachter. At the age of sixteen the budding author and Ellery Queen fan produced this story, which saw print in EQMM's December 1968 issue, in the Department of First Stories. This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of that issue going on sale. In the ensuing years Josh Pachter has produced...

Our selection this month is by a writer who debuted in EQMM and has gone on to have work chosen for the yearly Best American Mystery Stories anthology and to appear again in EQMM and other publications, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Here is Chris Muessig reading his story “Bias,” from the July 2009 issue of EQMM. Dramatic Interlude by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstu...

EQMM’s famous Department of First Stories is the source for this month’s podcast. The debut story, which appears in EQMM’s current issue, takes us into the life of a new writer who enjoys success, but at a cost. Author Nancy Novick, a medical writer, editor, and writing instructor, came to EQMM’s offices to do this recording of her story “How Does He Die This Time?” from the September/October 2018...

At the Malice Domestic convention in Bethesda, Maryland, this past spring, EQMM had the pleasure of recording Shelly Dickson Carr, author of the award-winning YA novel “Ripped,” reading a story by her grandfather, the great Golden Age mystery writer John Dickson Carr. The most celebrated master of the “locked room” mystery, John Dickson Carr contributed both fiction and book reviews to EQMM. His A...

A tale from EQMM’s Black Mask department is featured in this month’s podcast. We caught up with Con Lehane, author of two popular mystery series, at this year’s Malice Domestic convention in Bethesda, Maryland, where he did this reading of his September/October 2017 EQMM story “Come Back, Paddy Reilly”—a classic noir tale of a flawed character caught in an unresolvable dilemma. http://conlehane.co...

This month we feature an Ellery Queen pastiche by Dale C. Andrews. The third entry in a series begun on the heels of the Ellery Queen Centenary Symposium at Columbia University in 2005, the story brings an elderly Ellery Queen, still at the height of his deductive powers, out of retirement. The first story in this series earned an EQMM Readers Award scroll and a nomination for the Barry Award. Her...

Award-winning financial journalist Larry Light is also the author of three novels, two starring financial reporter Karen Glick. This year he made his EQMM debut with the story he reads for this episode in our podcast series, "Dysperception," from the January/February 2018 issue of EQMM. http://www.lawrencelight.com

Last month a long-awaited anthology of Ellery Queen pastiches and parodies entitled The Misadventures of Ellery Queen was released by Wildside Press. Most of the stories it contains were first published in EQMM. To celebrate the book’s publication we decided to have one of the stories recorded for this podcast series. Here is Darcy Bearman, Dell Magazines’ manager for social-media marketing, readi...

Canadian author Rob Brunet, a creative-writing instructor and cohost of Noir at the Bar Toronto, joins us in this episode in our podcast series. His evocative short stories, often set in the Kawarthas, have been appearing in EQMM since 2015. Here he is reading his story “Skinny’s Beach,” from the February 2016 issue of EQMM. http://www.robbrunet.com