NOW WITH ALL-NEW AUTHOR COMMENTARY! When the world fails to end on schedule, one man discovers that the mob is in no mood to discuss end-times theology. Read this novel on your Kindle Fire, iPad, tablet or smart phone! Get the free app here: http://www.wattpad.com/getmobile…
WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?With the nursing home about to close for good, can a grumpy old man find a killer—and figure out his relationship with his new lady friend—before all the suspects move away?Read this novel on your Kindle Fire, iPad, tablet or smart phone! Get the free app here: http://www.wattpad.com/getmobile…
YOU NEVER HAD MONEY TROUBLE LIKE THISWhen unemployed crime reporter Harry Truman gets a note from a local mission thanking him for his generous contribution--to the tune of a half million dollars--he's reasonably certain he had nothing to do with it. Internal Revenue Service agent Marion Russell wants nothing more than to make a name for himself with his employers. (Well, and to spend more time with his show dog.) Agent Russell is certain that Truman has some undeclared source of income--and will go to any bizarre lengths to prove it. Meanwhile, record label owner Buddy Powell has found that his latest marketing scheme--stage a fake kidnapping of country music sensation Darla Lovell--isn't working out as planned. His fixit men, Sherman Clayton and "Bull" Ron Taylor, have bungled the job, and now the fake-kidnapping has turned into the real thing. But what happened to the money? FBI Special Agents Murphy and Reed are heading an investigation into the kidnapping. The demands were met, the money was dropped--but the girl is still missing. And Murphy is certain that Truman must have something to do with it. All these oddballs collide in a tale of poor planning, miscommunication, and greed. Now, Truman has got to figure out who stuck him with this halo if he doesn't want to get fitted with prison stripes--or a harp and wings...…
I went to a movie with some friends. I’d mistakenly predicted a particular twist ending, so at dinner afterward I innocently asked one of my friends whether he had also expected the same ending. Apparently, a man at the next table mistakenly thought I blurted out the end of the movie. (I did not.) On his way out, he grumbled something along the lines of “I hope you know that you ruined the movie for us,” and then he was gone. I was too stunned to do anything other than go home and write this story. ("Ruin" copyright 2006, originally appeared on the blog Flashing in the Gutters.)…
Several years ago, a brilliant but short-lived webzine titled Flashing in the Gutters featured crime fiction in the form of short-short stories—also known as “flash fiction.” This was the first story I published with them. (“Mind Your Own Business” copyright 2006, originally appeared on the blog Flashing in the Gutters.)…
When I wrote my first novel, "Forgiving Solomon Long" (2005), I thought it might be fun to write a companion anthology, a collection of short stories exploring what the characters were doing before—and, in some cases, during—the main action. Although Al Holland was in "FSL," this is not one of those stories. “Unfinished Business” originally appeared in the collection "40 And Counting: Stories" (2006).…
With all the changes in media, newspapers are rapidly turning into relics of a bygone age. When I wrote it years ago, this short-short story was the result of an experiment in sitting down and writing something off the top of my head. My wife is afraid to let me try it again. Originally published in "Infuze Magazine" (2005).…
The title of this story always makes me think this bouncy tune by a pioneering 1970s folk-rock group that was named Love Song. Of course, "bouncy" and/or "folksy" is not the tone I was looking for. Maybe I should have called it CHURCH OF DEATH. This story was originally published in the webzine 'Infuze Magazine' (2004).…
This story is driven by a theme that runs through my novels: "You reap what you sow." Note that the main character is even named after Haman, from the biblical book of Esther. Originally published by "Infuze" (Nov 2004).…
Inspired by an odd photo, this short-short story came to me in the middle of the night; I promptly got out of bed, fired up the computer and typed it out before it left me. The next day, I put it in the mail to send to a short story magazine. I completely forgot about it until the check showed up in the mail a few months later.Originally published in "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine" (Jan 2003).…
Husband-and-wife amateur sleuths Tom and Darla Booke are my take on Nick and Nora Charles—by way of Nero Wolfe and his right-hand man, Archie Goodwin. I had an epic saga in mind for them, which would have taken me something like 30 years to write it in its entirety. I wrote the following story before I came to my senses.Read this story on your tablet or smart phone! Get the free app here: http://www.wattpad.com/getmobileP.S. -- I've also posted the full-length mystery Nursing a Grudge. Find that here: http://www.wattpad.com/story/5482105…