Short Story Reviews - stand alone and series

Murder on Lake Okeechobee by Gary Hoffman is a fun mystery. A body, a fishing boat, and an old grudge are pieces to this puzzle. Detective Brown investigates clues and interviews suspects in a short story you can read here.

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In The Wildest One by Brendan DuBois, former child actor Harry Cox finds it difficult to capitalize on his once famous past. His impatient wife, part-time special police officer for their small New Hampshire town, pushes him to attend celebrity reunion events. All Harry wants is to putter around his bakery, which is sliding into the red. The past won't let Harry go, from clueless fans to former co-stars. He's heading straight toward losing everything as the story opens.   

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine publishes several series short stories with recurring characters.

Counterpoint, by John H. Dirckx, features Detective Sergeant Fritz Dollinger, Lieutenant Auburn, and several police department personnel familiar to fans of the series. In this story, two neighbors - lawyer Maynard Millikin and doctor Quentin Nieborg - have a longstanding feud over property boundaries, outbuildings, fallen fruit, and noise. Their disagreements have escalated to a ridiculous crescendo, until they both become suspects in the murder of a handyman.

Scrap Drive - A Four Horsemen Story by Loren D. Estleman is another recurring series featuring four police officers. "The squad, colloquially known as the Four Horsemen, affected matching gray fedoras and black topcoats in order to avoid blackjacking one another by mistake in riot situations." At a WWII scrap drive in a public park, a gangster's body rolls off the pile of toasters, iron stoves, bowling trophies, and galvanized pails. The Four Horseman must track down the killer. What they discover is quite a surprise. 

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