Mystery Magazine: December 2021

At the cutting edge of crime fiction, Mystery 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, "Cajun State" by O'Neil De Noux, there is not much crime at Cajun State University … until someone steals the big Christmas tree from campus. Retired New Orleans police detective Hunter Bourget, now a university cop has to find that tree (and who stole it).

"Fruit On The Bottom" by Maura Yzmore: A woman doubts her reality as certain foods, which help with her chronic condition, keep vanishing from the fridge.

"Fair Is Fair" by Brandon Barrows: Jason Brockman has money troubles and no time to solve them. When he stumbles across the perfect extortion opportunity, what else is he supposed to do but take it? Of course, it's never that simple and there's always a problem you can't foresee …

In "The Christmas Caper" by Sharon Hart Addy even a Grinch's best laid plans get tripped up.

In "Just Another Small Town Death" by Joseph Goodrich, a policeman in a small Minnesota town investigates the death of a woman he'd known—and loved—when he was a child.

In "A Hungarian Christmas" by Vicki Weisfeld, Veronika convinces her young fiancé, Bert, that every Hungarian girl must have a present on Hungarian Christmas.

"Another Body" by Steve Beresford: Casey Baxter seems to have a knack for finding dead bodies, and when she finds another—lying stabbed in the automated warehouse where she works—it's the start of a very peculiar day …

"Santa Walks Into A Bar" by Frank Oreto: Wearing the Santa suit to Drake's Bar and Grill had been a joke.  But after that night Officer Paul Drazdzinski wouldn't laugh for years.

"The X In Xmas" by Robert Jeschonek: To solve the murder of a Mafia boss at Christmastime, Detective Charlie Collins joins forces with a female detective who has plenty of mob connections. The twisted holiday traditions of local wise guys lead them down a dark road decorated with death.

Try solving "Not Even The Mouse," A You-Solve-It By Eric B Ruark.