POP QUIZ by Rob Lopresti Below you will find 21 familiar authors and 21 mostly unknown titles.  The problem is that the words in each column have been jumbled.  For example, Raymond Chandler did not write a book called Naked You Advertise (and that’s a shame, really.)  He did, however write Farewell My Lovely and you […]

Here are Chapters IV and V of “The Queen of Spades”. Since there are more than the usual number of footnotes, in the interest of brevity I have forborne from making the usual general comments at the column’s end — in any case, I’m sure the Gentle Reader is perfectly capable of interpreting things for […]

Here is Chapter III of Alexander Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades”. As before, I’ve made some comments on the story at the end of the column. —JLW THE QUEEN OF SPADES by Alexander Pushkin III Vous m’ecrivez, mon ange, des lettres de quatre pages plus vite que je ne puis les lire.1 A Correspondence. Lizaveta […]

BAD, BAD CRIMINALS, part IV– South Africa by Leigh Lundin The South African Police Service is called SAPS, but from the following stories, the acronym applies to the criminals rather than the cops. When Planning a Heist, Don’t Forget the Get-Away Mthatha, Eastern Cape, SA.  If you’re going to steal booze, it’s a good idea […]

PROFESSIONAL HELP by John M. Floyd This week I’d like to veer off into the quirky world of those who not only read but write short stories. It’s my hope that it might be interesting to some non-writers as well, in sort of the same way that Field & Stream and “Toy Story” and the […]

CRIMINALLY BRIEF by Steve Steinbock It’s an odd paradox that the postings on a blog devoted to short fiction are so long. The weblog columns of those of us here at Criminal Brief tend to be on the longish side as far as weblogs go. That’s no crime. Columns and feature stories in print magazines […]

SEPTEMBER SIREN by Deborah Elliott-Upton The morrow was a bright September morn; The earth was beautiful as if new born; There was that nameless splendor everywhere That wild exhileration in the air. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow September is the ninth month, begins the last quarter of the year, and is a true end of carefree […]