EREV CHRISTMAS by Steven Steinbock Today is Erev Christmas ( ), literally Christmas Eve in Hebrew. Actually, the more common way of saying Christmas in modern Israel is Hag Ha-Molad (or ; literally “the Festival of the Nativity”). I’m guessing most of you didn’t know that. I’m also guessing that most of our regular readers […]

REGIONAL MYSTERIES by Deborah Elliott-Upton This is certainly a season to gather with old friends and family, but also to meet new people—who are usually friends or family of those we already know. Something about cocktails and new acquaintances bring interesting conversation topics to the forefront. I thrive in social settings. Those like me are […]

A VISIT FROM SAINT VASILIS by Rob Lopresti In honor of the season I am going to steal a page from my friend Peter Berryman. In this case I have taken the most famous poem about Christmas and run it through the Babelfish Translation service..Each verse went through one language, which is indicated, and then […]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS by Melodie Johnson Howe Bones and I are just now going out in search of a Christmas tree and to buy gifts for the family in the pouring rain. (What? It never rains in California.) Obviously I’m a little behind schedule. So here is an essay I wrote for the book, Thrillers: 100 […]

WOLPERTINGER SEES RED by James Lincoln Warren Jakob Linnaeus Wolpertinger, my friend the Mad Scientist, spends every month between December 6 and January 6 sitting in front of his fireplace in a rocking chair, staring at the empty hearth with a side-by-side twelve gauge shotgun in his lap. A few days ago I dropped by […]

CRIME WAVE and PUNISHMENT by Leigh Lundin, Louis, Josh, Dale, Mike, alisa, Jeff, Thad[1] Thanks to Criminal Brief readers, you may have heard Florida’s Orange County Sheriff’s Department staged armed SWAT-style takedowns against barbershops in Orlando. The raids went down something like this. H’air Raids “We’ve got a big ’do in Orlando, quite a hairy […]

STEP INTO MY LABORATORY by John M. Floyd Recently several of us at Criminal Brief have done briefs about our own workspaces and home offices. What I’d like to do this week is take that a bit further, and cover what’s in my little writer’s retreat (besides me, that is). The following is a partial […]