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Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine November/December 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 6, 2021
Then emerging from the dark barn, as out of some ghastly womb, was a woman in a white dress and long black hair, with a bloodstained jewel encrusted dagger in her hand.
Of the two surviving popular mystery genre magazines, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, my favorite has always been AHMM, and I guess this is a carry over from my childhood when I watched Hitchcock’s tv shows, and religiously read his anthologies, both the hardcovers and the paperbacks. Then there’s the fact that my family have been subscribers since 1973.
●Now the November/December 2021 issue, the sixty-fifth anniversary issue, starts out with Ellen Tremiti’s The Influencer , and it’s an interesting story dealing with a policewoman who is doing one last case before her retirement. In this case a young woman seems to have been kidnapped, and her goal in her life had to be that of being an internet influencer. Her kidnapping seems to have had a positive influence on her internet popularity. The policewoman’s case is equally mixed with her family woes dealing with her upcoming retirement.
●Up next is the latest in Loren D. Estleman’s “Four Horsemen” stories that are set in the forties Detroit. In Chicago Lightning the Four Horsemen were hardboiled policemen that specialized in Detroit’s gang activity, and now a pair of them have intercepted an erratically driven car, only to find it full of Thompson machine guns. An obvious case of gun running. Right? Or, is it? Read it and see. I never miss an opportunity to read an Estleman story.
●The third story in this issue is The Mission by Christopher E. Long and it is a story two young Mormon men who are out trolling for converts, when Danny, who is a recent convert starts getting bothered by a woman from his checkered past. The story’s ending doesn’t go where I thought it was going to go. Yes, it seems some people can change.
●Edith Maxwell gives the origin story of a female, non-violent vigilante team in An Excellent Team . The two featured women investigate the murder of one of their acquaintances, and by the ending the reader is left with the impression that this may the first in a series.
● LOOGY by Jim Fosilli is a baseball story in which a young baseball pitcher, whose career is on the downhill slide, is kidnapped by a pair of disgruntled fans. An interesting and amusing story, but by the story’s end, the bland lead character is essentially the same, and has learned nothing.
●Years after Sherlock Holmes’ death, John H. Watson gets involved in a case of a man who seems to be a victim, of an ancient curse in the story The Curse Of Edwin Granage by James G. Tipton. First a newly relocated farmer’s horses disappear, one-by-one, then his pigs, then finally, the farmer’s wife. And then, what does a travelling band of gypsies have to do with any of this? A decent enough story in the Holmes’ mythos, but a weak ending will spoil it.
●Mark Thielman’s story Dry Bones deals with a paroled felon trying to figure out his future when he lucks out and stops a robbery and gets hired by the store’s proprietor. Then another con ropes and blackmails this felon into a robbery. I hated, hated, hated the ending.
● The Trouble With Rebecca by Larry Light is a total gem of a story in which a computer nerd, Max Winters, falls in love with an office mate. But, in doing so, catches flack from his nightmare of a boss, because Max’s already married. But, is his wife really the problem that everybody thinks that she is, and if so, how come nobody has ever seen her? Shows just how somebody’s intricately woven lies and deception can end up hanging them if they just give themselves enough rope.
●R. T. Lawton presents us with a historical mystery in Green Eyes . A young pickpocket sees a man ripping off his lady crush and then gets the blame for the theft. A humorous crime story well worth a grin or two.
●Tom Larson gives us another of his Ecuadorian detective stories in Oro De Tontos (Fool’s Gold) . In this story, an alcoholic man is hired to track down an Ecuadorian relic, and so we are treated this guy getting drunk, tracking down somebody, getting drunk, wash, rinse, repeat. Even though this story references The Maltese Falcon , this story itself did nothing for me, and all of the characters were unlikable.
●Recently Brandon DuBois’ stories have put me in mind of the fictions by Fredric Brown, in that DuBois seems equally at home, and whose stories are as high in quality, in both the science fiction and the crime genres. A good example is Killers: A Story Of Love In Four Acts in which two drug hitmen reminisce, while waiting for their targets, about their most romantic moments, and then we see how this will effect their job this time. DuBois even gives us a good Brownian twist for an ending. But, it won’t be the one that you would be expecting.
●It’s funny when things don’t work out the way you’ve planned them, but then they work out even better. John H. Dirkxx’s story By His Own Hand has Scott Hayden sitting in his gazebo one last time as he has been conned out of his money, his land, and his family legacy. Then the man who orchestrated his downfall arrives to gloat and to antagonize Hayden even more. But…but…Dirkxx gives us a perfect Alfred Hitchcock story that is deeply, deeply drenched in irony.
●While it is well-written, Sharon Hunt’s story Digging Through Fog was ultimately disappointing. The set-up is good, in this story of bullying and a family’s death, but the ending was, uhmm, disappointing.
● Christmas Spirit has W. H. Cameron presenting us assistant funeral director Melisende who is called in to pick up the corpse of a child who has drowned in a small town’s frozen lake. The mother is blamed, and it’s up to Melisende to talk her out of killing herself and to get her to surrender herself to the police.
The problem is that in between these two incidents, Melisende is transporting the child’s corpse to the funeral home when the baby wakes up, and Melisende has to transport it to the local hospital. But, if the mother didn’t attempt murder, who is the culprit? Melisende has the makings of a great series character.
●The last full story in November/December 2021 issue is Juliet And Her Romeo by the pseudonymous Sidney Redcat. An abused wife finds herself taking advantage of a current crime wave, and another brutal beating from her husband, to get a new car, and to use it to get her revenge. A neat, if a rather far-fetched story. Still, fans of Alfred Hitchcock’s brand or irony will like it.
● Death Knell by Maureen Gaydos just isn’t a very good piece of flash fiction involving the murder of a guitarist.
●An average issue of AHMM, but it’s also disappointing as there are only two holiday stories here. One Halloween, and one, sorta, Christmas story. I expected more. Still, there some top-notch stories by Tremiti, Estleman, Long, Light, DuBois, Dirckxx, Cameron, & Redcar.
Of the two surviving popular mystery genre magazines, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, my favorite has always been AHMM, and I guess this is a carry over from my childhood when I watched Hitchcock’s tv shows, and religiously read his anthologies, both the hardcovers and the paperbacks. Then there’s the fact that my family have been subscribers since 1973.
●Now the November/December 2021 issue, the sixty-fifth anniversary issue, starts out with Ellen Tremiti’s The Influencer , and it’s an interesting story dealing with a policewoman who is doing one last case before her retirement. In this case a young woman seems to have been kidnapped, and her goal in her life had to be that of being an internet influencer. Her kidnapping seems to have had a positive influence on her internet popularity. The policewoman’s case is equally mixed with her family woes dealing with her upcoming retirement.
●Up next is the latest in Loren D. Estleman’s “Four Horsemen” stories that are set in the forties Detroit. In Chicago Lightning the Four Horsemen were hardboiled policemen that specialized in Detroit’s gang activity, and now a pair of them have intercepted an erratically driven car, only to find it full of Thompson machine guns. An obvious case of gun running. Right? Or, is it? Read it and see. I never miss an opportunity to read an Estleman story.
●The third story in this issue is The Mission by Christopher E. Long and it is a story two young Mormon men who are out trolling for converts, when Danny, who is a recent convert starts getting bothered by a woman from his checkered past. The story’s ending doesn’t go where I thought it was going to go. Yes, it seems some people can change.
●Edith Maxwell gives the origin story of a female, non-violent vigilante team in An Excellent Team . The two featured women investigate the murder of one of their acquaintances, and by the ending the reader is left with the impression that this may the first in a series.
● LOOGY by Jim Fosilli is a baseball story in which a young baseball pitcher, whose career is on the downhill slide, is kidnapped by a pair of disgruntled fans. An interesting and amusing story, but by the story’s end, the bland lead character is essentially the same, and has learned nothing.
●Years after Sherlock Holmes’ death, John H. Watson gets involved in a case of a man who seems to be a victim, of an ancient curse in the story The Curse Of Edwin Granage by James G. Tipton. First a newly relocated farmer’s horses disappear, one-by-one, then his pigs, then finally, the farmer’s wife. And then, what does a travelling band of gypsies have to do with any of this? A decent enough story in the Holmes’ mythos, but a weak ending will spoil it.
●Mark Thielman’s story Dry Bones deals with a paroled felon trying to figure out his future when he lucks out and stops a robbery and gets hired by the store’s proprietor. Then another con ropes and blackmails this felon into a robbery. I hated, hated, hated the ending.
● The Trouble With Rebecca by Larry Light is a total gem of a story in which a computer nerd, Max Winters, falls in love with an office mate. But, in doing so, catches flack from his nightmare of a boss, because Max’s already married. But, is his wife really the problem that everybody thinks that she is, and if so, how come nobody has ever seen her? Shows just how somebody’s intricately woven lies and deception can end up hanging them if they just give themselves enough rope.
●R. T. Lawton presents us with a historical mystery in Green Eyes . A young pickpocket sees a man ripping off his lady crush and then gets the blame for the theft. A humorous crime story well worth a grin or two.
●Tom Larson gives us another of his Ecuadorian detective stories in Oro De Tontos (Fool’s Gold) . In this story, an alcoholic man is hired to track down an Ecuadorian relic, and so we are treated this guy getting drunk, tracking down somebody, getting drunk, wash, rinse, repeat. Even though this story references The Maltese Falcon , this story itself did nothing for me, and all of the characters were unlikable.
●Recently Brandon DuBois’ stories have put me in mind of the fictions by Fredric Brown, in that DuBois seems equally at home, and whose stories are as high in quality, in both the science fiction and the crime genres. A good example is Killers: A Story Of Love In Four Acts in which two drug hitmen reminisce, while waiting for their targets, about their most romantic moments, and then we see how this will effect their job this time. DuBois even gives us a good Brownian twist for an ending. But, it won’t be the one that you would be expecting.
●It’s funny when things don’t work out the way you’ve planned them, but then they work out even better. John H. Dirkxx’s story By His Own Hand has Scott Hayden sitting in his gazebo one last time as he has been conned out of his money, his land, and his family legacy. Then the man who orchestrated his downfall arrives to gloat and to antagonize Hayden even more. But…but…Dirkxx gives us a perfect Alfred Hitchcock story that is deeply, deeply drenched in irony.
●While it is well-written, Sharon Hunt’s story Digging Through Fog was ultimately disappointing. The set-up is good, in this story of bullying and a family’s death, but the ending was, uhmm, disappointing.
● Christmas Spirit has W. H. Cameron presenting us assistant funeral director Melisende who is called in to pick up the corpse of a child who has drowned in a small town’s frozen lake. The mother is blamed, and it’s up to Melisende to talk her out of killing herself and to get her to surrender herself to the police.
The problem is that in between these two incidents, Melisende is transporting the child’s corpse to the funeral home when the baby wakes up, and Melisende has to transport it to the local hospital. But, if the mother didn’t attempt murder, who is the culprit? Melisende has the makings of a great series character.
●The last full story in November/December 2021 issue is Juliet And Her Romeo by the pseudonymous Sidney Redcat. An abused wife finds herself taking advantage of a current crime wave, and another brutal beating from her husband, to get a new car, and to use it to get her revenge. A neat, if a rather far-fetched story. Still, fans of Alfred Hitchcock’s brand or irony will like it.
● Death Knell by Maureen Gaydos just isn’t a very good piece of flash fiction involving the murder of a guitarist.
●An average issue of AHMM, but it’s also disappointing as there are only two holiday stories here. One Halloween, and one, sorta, Christmas story. I expected more. Still, there some top-notch stories by Tremiti, Estleman, Long, Light, DuBois, Dirckxx, Cameron, & Redcar.
February 17, 2022
Great short stories!
January 1, 2022
A (excellent):
LOOGY by Jim Fusilli
The Curse of Edwin Grange by James G Tipton
Green Eyes by R T Lawton
B (very good):
The Influencer by Ellen Tremiti
Chicago Lightning by Loren D Estleman
The Mission by Christopher E Long
An Excellent Team by Edith Maxwell
The Trouble with Rebecca by Larry Light
Oro de Tontos by Tom Larsen
Christmas Spirit by W H Cameron
C (very good):
Dry Bones by Mark Thielman
Killers: A Story of Love in Four Acts by Brendan DuBois
By His Own Hand by John H Dirckx
Digging through Fog by Sharon Hunt
Juliet & Her Romeo by Sydney Redcar
LOOGY by Jim Fusilli
The Curse of Edwin Grange by James G Tipton
Green Eyes by R T Lawton
B (very good):
The Influencer by Ellen Tremiti
Chicago Lightning by Loren D Estleman
The Mission by Christopher E Long
An Excellent Team by Edith Maxwell
The Trouble with Rebecca by Larry Light
Oro de Tontos by Tom Larsen
Christmas Spirit by W H Cameron
C (very good):
Dry Bones by Mark Thielman
Killers: A Story of Love in Four Acts by Brendan DuBois
By His Own Hand by John H Dirckx
Digging through Fog by Sharon Hunt
Juliet & Her Romeo by Sydney Redcar
November 19, 2021
My favorites:
By His Own Hand by John H. Dirck
Killers: A Story of Love in Four Acts by Brendan DuBois
The Influencer by Ellen Tremiti
It felt like there were more longer stories in this volume. Which I don't love because I like to read one full story in bed at night, and after 15-20 minutes I have to bookmark and go to sleep. But that's just me! The Influencer was pretty long, but I enjoyed it a lot over two nights. :)
By His Own Hand by John H. Dirck
Killers: A Story of Love in Four Acts by Brendan DuBois
The Influencer by Ellen Tremiti
It felt like there were more longer stories in this volume. Which I don't love because I like to read one full story in bed at night, and after 15-20 minutes I have to bookmark and go to sleep. But that's just me! The Influencer was pretty long, but I enjoyed it a lot over two nights. :)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews