“The Matter of the Smallgarian Wall and the Portuguese Undertaker” by Steve Levi

Captain Heinz Noonan, the “Bearded Holmes“ of the Sandersonville Police Department, was working on being inconspicuous at the Sandersonville Chamber of Commerce luncheon announcing the inauguration of a new police public relations campaign when he was spotted by Police Commissioner Lizzard who, unlike Noonan, was trying to be as visible as possible. This was hard […]

“Kind of Blue” by Andy Rausch

It was a hot night in The Blue Room, and Junior was really going to town on the trumpet, having his way with his audience. Drenched in sweat and enveloped in thick cigarette smoke, he wrapped up his set with a largely-improvised version of “So What.” The moment he finished, the audience erupted with cheers […]

“Quiet and the Darkness” by Matt Phillips

When you live way out here, there’s all these sounds you hear. I can’t do nothing for you but tell you what they are: The yipping coyote. His howls. The mountain lions growling in the canyons. Them trucks out on the highway. Big tires and chains dragging beneath tractor trailers. Old hoot owl hidden deep […]

“Alex” by Chris Roy

It was trying hard to bite him. For a moment, the lean muscled young man thought the soupy mud had trapped his foot. A sac of cold nerves dropped into his gut, loosening crucial leg tension right as he leapt. His arms stretched thin, grasped a pine bough. Uncertainty protruding from eyes that flashed forward […]

“Writing Saved My Life” by Chris Roy

I believe that 90% of creativity is putting in the work. Start with an idea and expand on it. It’s awful at first. Make revisions, additions, trim and polish, until the final product is a single piece of art that will dazzle and baffle and few will know how much work was put into it—most […]

“The Forest for the Trees” by Thomas Pluck

Sirens echoed off the towering oaks of Branch Brook Park. Paulie ignored them. They’d find the wreck soon enough. Cherry blossoms made a white belt across the rolling green. He slid under a bough. The petals left confetti in his hair. Was it this one? He ran his sticky, stained fingers over the bark. No. […]

“Requiem For Spider” by Reed Farrel Coleman

Her heart was lonelier than Sergeant Pepper’s and the whole fucking band. I could see that from across the bar, not that across the bar was like seeing across space and time. It was more like twenty feet and, at that time of night, the view was relatively unobstructed. She had last call girl written […]

“Key to the Highway” by Joseph Goodrich

Sometimes the fabric of your life rips, and you get a true look at someone or something you thought you knew. Or—even worse—you get a look at yourself. And maybe you don’t like what you see. Maybe you’d like it to change. Maybe you’d change it if you knew how. Or maybe you’re left with […]

Excerpts from “Hostage for a Hood” and “The Merriweather File” by Lionel White

Lionel White wrote such clever and realistic crime novels that when a petty crook in France read one of his books, he used it as a blueprint for his own crime. It seemed clever to him, and foolproof, although a series of coincidences and flaws in human character made the scheme fail in the book. […]

“The Cleaner” by Sharon Dempsey

Silvia sits on the back steps poking at the clogged head of the cleaning stick with her knitting needle. She feels pleased with herself for thinking to bring the needle with her. As usual, the machine is sucking up nothing at all, just blowing dust back at her. The rotating bristles are a mess of […]