Mystery Tables of Contents Un-Mystified (Partly), Books Now at Printer

Today brings us an email by Flame Tree Publishing’s Gillian Whitaker to the effect that their two upcoming mystery anthologies (cf. June 20) have now gone to print.  Moreover, “we have now announced the list of authors — new and classic — included in each anthology, so you can finally see who you will be appearing alongside.  The stories appear alphabetically by author in the books, regardless of whether they were classic stories or new submissions, as we have found this keeps the pacing and tone varied throughout.”  For a little background, or to practically quote myself from last month, two titles had been announced, CRIME AND MYSTERY (to “feature whodunits, detective stories and mysteries bordering on the supernatural.  Probably the more gentle of the two volumes so think Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown and Poirot”) and MURDER MAYHEM (“more hard boiled and hard gore.  If your story features real monsters, human, serial killer or otherwise, this is the home for them, especially if the story’s POV is the killer’s”).  My offerings in these are “Paperboxing Art,” originally published in NEW MYSTERY in Summer 1997 and a 1998 Anthony Award nominee for best short story, and “Mr. Happy Head” from WICKED MYSTIC, Spring 1996, the magazine that once had the distinction of being turned back from a prisoner-subscriber by the Texas prison system as being unsuitable for an inmate on death row (true story).

So now we know where the “new” stories stand, or two of them anyway, but what we don’t know still are the titles of the classics they’ll live amongst.  Be that as it may though, below are listed the roster(s) of “newbies” by name and title, plus listings of names alone of the old masters.

Gotta retain some surprises, eh?

But to the chase, or, to quote the publishers once again:  Building on the success of last year’s Gothic Fantasy anthologies, deluxe hardcover editions on Horror, Ghosts and Science Fiction, we’re thrilled to be adding two new titles to the collection: Crime & Mystery, and Murder Mayhem.  Once again offering up the potent mix of classic tales and new fiction, we take a fascinating look back to the origins of the genre from golden age detective whodunnits to chilling horror-based tales of murder.  We’re including such auspicious names as Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, G.K. Chesterton and William Hope Hodgson, who masterfully crafted stories that are still worth reading today, and that continue to inspire the modern authors we are excited to be able to publish alongside them.  Our call for submissions was met with a fantastic response, and though the final selection was tough, we thoroughly enjoyed reading so many new tales of mayhem and intrigue.

We’re delighted to announce the full list of successful submissions for the first two of our 2016 Gothic Fantasy deluxe anthologies.

Crime & Mystery

The Cost of Security by Tara Campbell

Skitter and Click by Jennifer Dornan-Fish

Paperboxing Art by James Dorr

Home Run by Marcelle Dubé

Suggestive Thoughts by H.L. Fullerton

I Am Nightmare by Jennifer Gifford

Three Words by Nathan Hystad

The Marionettist by John A. Karr

Mechanical Love by Kin S. Law

iMurder by Josh Pachter

Creature of the Thaumatrope by Tony Pi

The Whipping Boy by Conor Powers-Smith

The Man Wore Motley by Stephen D. Rogers

The House by Steve Shrott

Catzized by Annette Siketa

Ghosts, Bigfoot and Free Lunches by Dan Stout

Blood and Silver Beneath the Many Moons by Brian Trent

Murder on the Cogsworthy Express by Cameron Trost

Chains of Command by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley and Ruth Nestvold

These new authors will appear with the following classic and essential writers: Ernest Bramah, G.K. Chesterton, Wilkie Collins, Richard Harding Davis, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, R. Austin Freeman, Jacques Futrelle, Anna Katharine Green, Arthur Griffiths, E.W. Hornung, Maurice Leblanc, Jack London, Arthur Morrison, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur B. Reeve, Mark Twain, Edgar Wallace, Victor L. Whitechurch, Israel Zangwill.

Murder Mayhem

The Wendigo Goes Home by Sara Dobie Bauer

Funeral by Michael Cebula

Into the Blue by Carolyn Charron

Mr. Happy Head by James Dorr

Nineteen Sixty-Five Ford Falcon by Tim Foley

Mama Said by Steven Thor Gunnin

Six Aspects of Cath Baduma by Kate Heartfield

Freedom is not Free by David M. Hoenig

How to Build a Mass Murderer by Liam Hogan

The Two-Out-of-Three Rule by Patrick J. Hurley

Getting Shot in the Face Still Stings by Michelle Ann King

Less than Katherine by Claude Lalumière

Shared Losses by Gerri Leen

Drive Safe by K.A. Mielke

Redux by Alexandra Camille Renwick

The First Seven Deaths of Mildred Orly by Fred Senese

Mister Ted by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

Corpses Removed, No Questions Asked by Dean H. Wild

Fragments of Me by Nemma Wollenfang

These new authors will appear with the following classic and essential writers:  Ambrose Bierce, Steen Steensen Blicher, G.K. Chesterton, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Dick Donovan, Arthur Conan Doyle, William Hope Hodgson, E.T.A. Hoffman, Robert E. Howard, W.W. Jacobs, Franz Kafka, Rudyard Kipling, H.P. Lovecraft, Edith Nesbit, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur B. Reeve, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Ethel Lina White, Oscar Wilde.