If you’ve read an issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in the last twenty years, you’ve almost certainly read a story by the amazing and prolific Jas. R. Petrin. (I knew we were spiritual brothers the first time I saw his byline–I had seriously considered using “Jas. L. Warren”, which is how I sign everything, […]

G. Miki Hayden won the Edgar for her short story “The Maids” in 2004, which appeared in the MWA anthology Blood on their Hands, for which JLW had the honor of serving as a judge. Miki is also the author of Writing the Mystery and The Naked Writer (a style and composition book for all […]

POETIC JUSTICE by Charles Ardai One of the things I remember most fondly about reading Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine from the old days was just how broad a definition editor Fred Dannay had of what counted as a short story. He’d publish excerpts from great novels, if he could find a snippet a few pages […]

Below, Doug Allyn makes a casual reference to his fifth Edgar nomination. He neglects to mention that he has actually been nominated seven times, more than any other mystery writer in any category, and once walked home with the little porcelain bust of Poe. He arrived on the mystery scene with a bang in 1986, […]

Readers of the first “Mystery Masterclass” column may remember that Charles Ardai referred to “a recent article in the Wall Street Journal [that] spoke of a mystery short story renaissance.” The author of that article was Tom Nolan, the WSJ’s regular correspondent for mystery fiction and the editor of Strangers In Town: Three Newly Discovered […]

We are pleased to offer this piece by the Dean of mystery short story writers, 2001 MWA Grand Master and 1968 Edgar Award for Short Story winner Edward D. Hoch, probably the most admired short crime fiction author alive–certainly by all of us! WHY THE SHORT STORY? by Edward D. Hoch Happily, people don’t often […]

To inaugurate our “Mystery Masterclass” feature, we are pleased to present this year’s winner of the Edgar Award for Best Short Story, Charles Ardai. Not only is Charles one of the best writers in the business, but there’s a picture of him in the American Heritage Dictionary under the entry “Renaissance Man.” In a previous […]