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 in the February 1958 issue of EQMM, read by our Senior Managing Editor, Jackie Sherbow. 

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 of EQMM, in the January/February 2020 and current January/February 2023 issues respectively. Stay tuned, as we have several more stories coming out by Twist Phelan this year.https://twistphelan.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

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 Memorial Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement, among other honors. Sandra Murphy is a Derringer Award winner who has had a collection of stories published by Untreed Reads. She is the reader for this recording of “Sit. Stay. Die.” by Michael Bracken and Sandra Murphy, first published in the July/August 2022 issue of EQMM. http://www.crimefictionwriter.com

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 Man Who."https://www.purple-planet.com/

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.comhttps://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 relates her tale of a lover's plot to escape an arranged marriage that was cursed from the start. https://www.purple-planet.com/

A classic from EQMM's founding editors, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee (writing as Ellery Queen), is read for listeners in this episode of our podcast series by EQMM managing editor Jackie Sherbow. Don't miss the chance to solve this classical puzzle mystery yourself in Ellery Queen's hallmark Challenge to the Reader.https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/https://www.purple-planet.com/

William Burton McCormick is a regular contributor to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine whose writings have made him a finalist for Shamus, Derringer, and Claymore awards. In this episode of our podcast series, McCormick whisks us away to his vibrant and mysterious vision of ancient Rome as he reads "Pompo's Disguise," which appeared in our March/April 2015 issue.https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/https://www.williamburtonmccormick.com/https://www.purple-planet.com/

Anna Scotti is an award-winning poet whose work was recently collected in the volume Bewildered by All This Broken Sky. She's also a novelist and short story writer and has, for the past few years, been contributing to EQMM a series of stories featuring a sleuth in the Witness Security program. For this entry in our podcast series, Anna Scotti reads her story “What the Morning Never Suspected,” the second in her WITSEC series, from the September/October 2020 issue of EQMM. https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.comhttp://www.annakscotti.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

To usher in 2022, we've chosen a New Year's story from EQMM's Department of First Stories. New writer Ken Linn begins his tale on July 4th—but follows his protagonist up to the turn of a new year. It's a story of renewal perfect for reflecting on new beginnings. Here is Ken Linn reading his story “Stray,” first published in the January/February 2021 issue of EQMM.https://www.purple-planet.com

Former radio worker Bonnie Hearn Hill is the author of sixteen suspense novels, including The River Below. Here she reads her seasonally appropriate story "Feliz Navidead," from the January/February 2020 issue of EQMM and first-place winner of Writer's Digest Magazine's genre short story award.https://www.bonniehhill.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

Award-winning novelist and short-story writer Marilyn Todd has been contributing to EQMM since 2000, and her work often visits different historical periods and places, from Ancient Greece to 1960s London. This month, her story "Long Slow Dance Through the Passage of Time" (from the November/December 2018 issue), which begins in the doo-wop era, is read by actor Mandie Davis.http://www.marilyntodd.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

In our latest podcast episode, John F. Dobbyn—author of the Devlin and Knight legal thrillers as well as several Yukon stories in verse published in EQMM—reads "A Little Help From My Friend," a compelling tale from our March/April 2020 issue.https://www.johndobbyn.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

This month we offer something new: A reading by Canadian journalist, author, and professor Dean Jobb of his true crime piece "Arthur Conan Doyle and the Mutineers," which was published in the September/October 2020 issue. Dean Jobb's "Stranger Than Fiction" column appears in print in our magazine and online at www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com.http://www.deanjobb.comhttps://www.purple-planet.com

As part of EQMM's 80th anniversary celebration, we offer a podcast this month featuring some of the characters from the Ellery Queen novels and stories, written by Frederic Danny and Manfred B. Lee (EQMM's founders). Dale C. Andrews is a longtime, devoted Ellery Queen fan and he's written several Ellery Queen pastiches for EQMM. Here he is reading the most recent of them, “Four Words,” from the September/October 2020 issue of EQMM.https://www.purple-planet.com

EQMM has a tradition of including work written by writing teams and collaborators. Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet, who have been writing together for more than forty years as Hal Charles, saw their fiction debut in the magazine's Department of First Stories. In this month's podcast, Hal Blythe reads “Draw Play” by Hal Charles from the May 2003 issue. https://somethingisgoingtohappen.net/2021/06/09/if-it-werent-for-ellery-queen-by-hal-charles/https://archive.org

A longtime EQMM contributor, Michael Z. Lewin is a prolific novelist and short-story writer. An American by birth, he lives in the U.K. Michael Lewin is the author of the P.I. Albert Samson series; another of his popular series features Indianapolis detective Sergeant Leroy Powder, who is the central character of the story he reads here, “The Cards You’re Dealt” from the November/December 2020 issue of EQMM. http://www.michaelzlewin.com https://www.purple-planet.com

Novelist and short-story author Jeff Soloway was the winner of the 2014 Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story by an American Author. Here he reads his EQMM debut from the January/February 2021 issue, "The Interpreter and the Killer," which features a central character in a job we don't see often in mystery fiction. http://www.randomhousebooks.com/authors/jeff-soloway https://www.purple-planet.com

This month we’ve selected a private-eye story for the podcast: “All Shook Down,” from the September/October 2020 issue of EQMM. It’s the first contribution to the magazine by Libby Cudmore, author of the highly acclaimed novel The Big Rewind. If you like it—and we’re sure you will!—there’s another story in the series coming up in our next issue, May/June 2021. https://libbycudmore.com https://www.purple-planet.com

As part of EQMM's 80th-year anniversary celebration this year (2021), we offer a seasonally appropriate history-laden mystery by the multitalented writing team of Ellery Queen: "The President's Half Disme," originally published in EQMM in February 1947.

Edward D. Hoch had a thirty-five-year streak of unbroken publication in each issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine until his death in early 2008. We have no doubt that he still has many fans among our readers. 2021 is the magazine’s 80th year of publication, and as part of our celebration of highlights of our history we wanted to be sure to include some of Edward D. Hoch’s work. The Rochester author was a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, an Edgar Allan Poe Award winner, and the recipient of two Anthony Awards. For this podcast EQMM editor Janet Hutchings reads his story “The Man Who Drowned in Champagne,” from the April 1998 issue of EQMM.

Terence Faherty is the author of the Scott Elliott and Owen Keane series. He has also been penning a series of Sherlock Holmes parodies that appear in our January/February issues, coinciding with the Baker Street Irregulars' celebration of Sherlock Holmes's Twelfth Night birthday. Here he reads "The Noble Bachelor" from our January/February 2018 issue.

Fei Wu is an author, translator, freelance editor, and literary agent who resides outside of Shanghai. He has played a key role in introducing Chinese readers to Golden Age detective fiction. Here, his suspenseful, unique, and clever Christmas tale "Beijingle All the Way" from our January/February 2020 issue is read by the translator of the story—and longtime contributor to EQMM—Josh Pachter. https://www.purple-planet.com

John M. Floyd is one of the mystery genre’s most prolific short story writers. His work has appeared in more than three hundred different publications, and has earned four Derringer awards and a nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best short story. In 2018, he received the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement. His most recent honor came this year, when he won the best short story Derringer for the story he reads for this podcast, “On the Road With Mary Jo,” from the January/February 2019 issue of EQMM. www.johnmfloyd.com purple-planet.com

Barb Goffman is a mystery author, editor, and anthologist. She has won the Agatha, Macavity, and Silver Falchion awards for her writing, and has received more than two dozen award nominations. In this episode, she reads her tale "Dear Emily Etiquette" from the current September/October 2020 issue of EQMM. http://www.barbgoffman.com https://www.purple-planet.com

Derringer Award winner Josh Pachter is a translator, editor, and short-story writer. His translations and tales appear regularly in our pages—the former in the Passport to Crime department—and his recent editorial work has been published in anthologies from Untreed Reads, Mysterious Press, and Akashic Books. Here he reads his story "The Secret Lagoon" from the September/October 2019 issue. http://joshpachter.com https://www.purple-planet.com

This year's Shamus Award for Best Short Story went to Louisiana author O'Neil De Noux for his tale "Sac-a-Lait Man," from EQMM's September/October 2019 issue. The author also won the 2017 Shamus Award and has won a Derringer Award for Best Novelette. De Noux is the author of over thirty novels. The sixth book in the Lucien Caye series, to which this story belongs, is forthcoming. http://www.oneildenoux.com

In this episode, New Jersey author David Dean reads his moving and suspenseful tale "The Duelist" from the May/June 2019 issue. The story, which won that year's EQMM Readers Award contest, is a historical one that brilliantly recreates the antebellum period in the United States.

In this month's episode, we turn our attention to poetry. EQMM has a long history of including occasional poems in our pages. From humorous limericks to serious free verse, poetry gives another lens through which to view the crime and mystery genre. Here we include a story in epic verse by John F. Dobbyn and poems by James Sallis, Stephen D. Rogers, Kevin Mims, Marilyn Todd, John V. Mercurio, K.D. Hart, and Diane Yetman, read by the authors, EQMM Managing Editor Jackie Sherbow, and actor Mandie Davis. https://www.johndobbyn.com http://www.jamessallis.com https://www.stephendrogers.com http://www.marilyntodd.com https://www.jackiesherbow.com

A former attorney for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, V.S. Kemanis often writes fiction with legal themes. That’s true of the first of her three stories for EQMM, which she reads for this podcast. The author has five collections of short stories in print, including the Eric Hoffer Award-winning volume Your Pick: Selected Stories. She’s also the author of the Dana Hargrove novels. Here she is reading her story “Collector’s Find,” from our September/October 2013 issue. https://www.vskemanis.com https://www.purple-planet.com

This month’s podcast episode features “Father of the Corpse” by Department of First Stories author Cecilia Fulton. The author and former prosecutor grew up in California and now lives on the East Coast with her family. Her short stories have appeared in publications by Akashic Books. https://www.fultonstories.com https://www.purple-planet.com

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 current issue (March/April 2020) of EQMM. https://edithmaxwell.com Recorded at Malice Domestic 2019 http://malicedomestic.org https://www.purple-planet.com