THAT REPO LOT IN THE SKY by James Lincoln Warren It’s been a rough week for lovers of mysteries. First, there was the unwelcome news that The Mystery Bookstore in Westwood Village, a scant two miles from my home and the store where I used to work, is closing its doors forever at the end […]

PROFESSIONAL PURPOSE by Leigh Lundin New Mexico must have per capita the greatest number of writers, some which we’ve mentioned such as Susan Slater and Tony Hillerman. Today I’ll introduce you to another, Marie Cash, a friend and colleague of my friend Steve, and creator of series character Jemimah Hodge. Marie is an unusual mystery […]

A FANTASY WORLD by John M. Floyd Leigh Lundin’s CB column “Hollywood Musts” a couple years ago, and his and Tony Harris’s examples of clichés and illogical scenes in movies, have done what every piece of writing should do: they’ve stayed on my mind. The points they made should be a lesson to everyone who […]

THE BOOKS OF RUTH by Steven Steinbock The mystery world lost another legend this week. Ruth Cavin died on Sunday at the age of ninety-two. I call her a legend because she was, and still is, even though a lot of readers will not have heard of her. She wasn’t a big-name author or an […]

GOING SOMEWHERE ELSE by Deborah Elliott-Upton Weather temperatures have dive-bombed beyond reasonably chilly and catapulted past a postcard prettiness and onto the bitter part of winter—and this is only the beginning of the season. I type slower when my fingers are freezing. Yet when the brain starts churning out ideas, my fingers flies across the […]

ODD SOCKS 9 by Rob Lopresti I just spent some time on Vashon Island, a lovely little zone nestled in the midst of Puget Sound, not all that far from Seattle. That reminded me to tell you about this tidbit. The obituary you see above appeared in the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber. In case you don’t […]

AN EMPTY MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE by Melodie Johnson Howe James’ very funny column reminded me of an incident that happened years ago. I was eighteen and in acting class. A girl my age, also blonde, sat alone on the stage, a platform painted black, under a single spotlight. Jeff Corey, the […]