Mystery Magazine: November 2021

★ Mystery Magazine's November 2021 issue ★

Mystery Magazine presents original short stories by the world's best-known and emerging mystery writers, each and every month. Get ready to be surprised, challenged, and entertained--whether you enjoy the style of the Golden Age of mystery.

In our cover feature "Back Down To Black" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, freelance mailman Mercury Carter travels to Des Moines, Iowa, to deliver a top-secret formula to an epidemiologist that could save thousands of lives, only to encounter people intent on intercepting the information—by force if necessary.

"Trouble Is His Biz" by John H. Dromey: Gopher Hartman was an old-school private eye, or maybe a dropout. An independent thinker, he tended to go his own way in an effort to live up to his name.

In "Gator Bait" by DG Critchley, drug dealers are disappearing in South Florida. It could be an unusually tidy turf war or something else. FBI agent Travis Tredman suspects the latter when a half-eaten dealer shows up in the Big Cypress.

In "Murder By The Sea" by Jennifer Steil, a housekeeper discovers a body impaled on a broken vodka bottle by the Aral Sea, and the entire town falls under suspicion.

"Don't Want To Know" by Steve Beresford: When her husband Joey calmly announces that he wants to kill his brother, Fran realises her life is about to change forever. And Joey claims his plan is perfect. But as for the details of that plan—Fran doesn't want to know …

In "The Elevating Power Of Art" by Liv Strom, a last-minute heist allows common burglar Ricky the chance to live out his dream of joining the elegant world of art theft, but he soon discovers it is not as easy as it first seems.

"Happy To Help" by Carl Robinette: Daisy Belle is always happy to help and she doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. When her buddy, Ray Gage, is arrested for murder, Daisy will stop at nothing to prove his innocence.

"Under Water" by Josh Pachter: Owning a home isn't for the fainthearted, even when the weather is fine. When disaster strikes, though, desperate times call for desperate measures …

"A Cozy Arrangement" A You-Solve-It By John H. Dromey: Natural causes or a sinister plot? It's difficult to say when a petite piece of evidence—a potentially important clue—goes missing.

Cover art by Robin Grenville Evans.