In any mystery, the careful deployment of clues, character, setting, and foreshadowing can be seen as the author’s fingerprints. Even if the basic set-up of a story is familiar, the writer’s command of their tools and craft can keep the reader hooked until the final paragraph. Where the investigator’s role is to reveal the significance of each clue, the author’s is to conceal the labor required to create the story. At AHMM, we strive for variety in approach and style, but always seek the kind of writing that will keep the reader thumbing through, leaving their own prints all over the issue.

Margo and the Yachting Party
by Terence Faherty

“In a past life, I must’ve been Jack the Ripper.” The speaker was Raymond Pedigo, producer of a weekly radio program, Gotham Goings On. “Or maybe the guy who shot President Garfield. It must’ve been something terrible for me to be punished like this.”

His assistant, Margo Banning, who was standing behind Pedigo in the little control booth of Studio A, was moved to pat her boss on the shoulder. She didn’t act on the impulse, having recently met the formidable Mrs. Pedigo, but she sympathized nonetheless. READ MORE

Toe on the Ladder
by John Paxton Sheriff

The roar of the engine and the howl of the siren faded and were borne away on the wind.

I let my breath go in an explosive gasp, dug hooked fingers into the wet mud, and wearily dragged myself out of the weeds and the slime, and on all fours clawed my way up the steep bank from the ditch. When I climbed to my feet my shoes squelched and the wind and driving rain hit me, and I stood shivering on the verge, while the taillights of the police car that had sent me diving for cover winked mockingly as it braked for the distant curve. READ MORE