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Seriously Serial

Readers get a lot of pleasure encountering old friends, series characters that they’ve met before. AHMM is always pleased to welcome such recidivists, and many writers have taken the opportunity to introduce new characters in these pages who have gone on to great acclaim. In fact, our Black Orchid Novella Award winner, Libby Cudmore, already has further plans for the private eye duo she introduces in “Alibi in Ice.” You’ll find more familiar faces, as well as some standout stand-alones, in this issue.

Marcelle Dubé revisits retired Chief Superintendent Estelle Martin, now a volunteer at a homeless shelter in the Yukon, who finds herself involved in a missing person case in “Chuck Berry Is Missing.” Math teacher Pete Barrow augments his salary by conducting private investigations, so it’s natural that the Potomac County sheriff would call him for help when a found child claims to be from the early 1960s in “Time Lies” by Ken Linn.

Tom Larsen introduced Ecuadorian P.I. Wilson Salinas to our readers in 2017, and he returns here in “El Abuelo Descarrido” (The Wayward Grandfather), taking a case for a wealthy client, only to learn that he himself is being set up to take the blame for a murder. John H. Dirckx has been publishing top-notch procedurals in our pages for more than forty years; this time around his team of crime solvers tackles the murder of a corporate spy in “Missing Links.”

But not everyone is a repeat offender (at least not yet), and we are delighted to welcome in this issue three writers new to our pages: in Steven Sheil’s “The Art of Cruel Embroidery” the tailor to a country music star lends his craft and encouragement to a new voice; in Vicki Weisfeld’s “Among the Long Shadows,” a young reporter encounters a dead body in a new museum exhibit; and in Irette Y. Patterson’s “Safe at Home,” a friendship is rekindled with home baked goodies.

Meanwhile, a liquor agent rekindles an old flame for the bootlegger’s daughter in John M. Floyd’s “Moonshine and Roses.” Stealing a Faberge egg requires some clever planning in Joslyn Chase’s “Delivering the Egg MacGuffin.” A woman’s mindfulness training comes in handy her when her home is invaded in Craig Faustus Buck’s “Home Game.” And when a woman disappears, then reappears, the sudden lifting of suspicion opens up opportunities for her husband in Janice Law’s “Up and Gone.”

We hope that our readers view each issue of AHMM as a visit from old friends.

Look for our July/August 2024 issue on sale at newsstands on June 11, 2024,. Or subscribe to AHMM in print or in a wide variety of digital formats.