This anthology draws together some of the best new stories of mystery and murder—compiled by the Anthony Award–winning crime fiction editor.This anthology collects the most original stories of murder by some of mystery fiction's most inventive talents from the United States and United Kingdom. With innovative new takes on locked-room mysteries and impossible crimes, these short stories are full of vexing conundrums and reality-defying puzzles. A murder has been comm...

The 1980s saw the first space shuttle lift off, the end of the Cold War, Live Aid, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of the first personal computer, the rise of Reaganomics, the Tiananmen Square protests, and creation of the first designer babies.At the same time, Cyndi Lauper was "The Voice of the MTV generation," and girls weren't the only people who wanted to have fun.In this rapidly changing environment, private eyes provided clients with legal and ext...

“[A] rich and varied anthology…” —Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewJanet Hutchings, Chris Grabenstein, Gary Phillips, and Hilary Davidson headline a new world tour anthology of 22 stories from the heartland of America to Italy, Japan, Mexico, Cuba, England, and more.Passport to Murder is published in conjunction with Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, held in 2017 in Toronto, Ontario. As with the convention itself, the anthology spreads a broad cano...

The Black Cat Mystery Magazine returns with issue #7 — a special Private Eye edition, with great new tales (and one classic reprint) by masters of the genre. Included this time are:THE CHARITY CASE, by Robert LoprestiTHE WHOLE STORY, by Andrew Welsh-HugginsTHE STOPWATCH OF DEATH, by Josh PachterTHE FUGITIVE WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Bev VincentLOVE PIRATE, by O'Neil De NouxPICTURES OF LILY, by Graham PowellSHOW AND ZELLER, by Gord...

This issue, we have a locked-room mystery novel, a far-future science-fantasy sword-and-sorcery novel, and 8 shorts featuring everything from dogs to cats to buried skeletons to time travel—and more! Truly, something for everyone.As always, special thanks to our Acquiring Editors, Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, for picking a pair of terrific original tales. And our editorial board—Tom Easton, Ryan Hines, Vicki Erwin, Paula Messina, and Richard Prosch—who patiently read submissio...

Welcome to Black Cat Weekly. We can’t believe it’s been 100 issues! Time flies when you’re having fun. To celebrate, we are offering this issue at a special price.To help make this issue special, we asked Acquiring Editors Barb Goffman and Michael Bracken to contribute some special stories of their own. We think you’ll agree, they are among the highlights of this issue. On the mystery side , we also have stories by Nancy Pickard, Bradley Harper, and a novel from the legend...

Renovating the long-unoccupied Canterbrem home is just the project Shelby Paulson needs after her marriage ends. As she breathes new life into the house, she discovers things about the home’s previous owner that change her life as well.

This is a special issue—our 50th, as you may have noticed from our cover. To celebrate, all past and present editors were to contribute a story. (It helps that they are also amazingly talented writers.) So we have stories from Michael Bracken, Barb Goffman, Paul Di Filippo, Darrell Schweitzer, and Cynthia Ward in addition to our other fare.But wait! There’s more!This issue features four original tales—Elizabeth Zelvin has a fantasy/mystery stories, Phyllis...

Our 51st issue is another strong one one, with four of our acquiring editors finding tales for us. Michael Bracken has an original Bev Vincent mystery, and Barb Goffman has a winner from R.T. Lawton. Cynthia Ward turns the tables on fellow editor Michael Bracken and selects a haunted house story by him! And too-long-absent editor Paul Di Filippo has picked a powerful story by Sheree R. Thomas. Good stuff.As if that’s not enough (which it never is for the Black Cat!), we have gone b...

The Black Cat web site has been around for almost four years now, serving up a weekly buffet of new and classic mysteries—and more recently science fiction—to thousands of readers each week. Rather than continue to release all these novels and stories as individual ebooks, we have decided to bundle them up into a convenient weekly magazine…which is a lot more fun to work on!So here is Black Cat Weekly #1, the September 5, 2021 issue, for your enjoyment pleasure.To ...

Every Tuesday when the bookmobile visits Quarryville, Texas, Graham Sugarman checks out five books. Five hefty books. When the librarian is murdered and the bookmobile stops visiting Quarryville, Mr. Sugarman’s well-ordered life is turned topsy-turvy.The Barb Goffman Presents series showcases the best in modern mystery and crime stories, personally selected by one of the most acclaimed short stories authors and editors in the mystery field.

A lawyer, who once specialized in mediation, gave up his practice when his wife died of cancer. Now he occasionally does favors for friends and the people at McGinty’s, the bar where he spends many of his waking hours. Stella Carter wants something from her estranged husband—a mobster named John Carter—and asks the narrator to get it. The price he pays for agreeing to help is a cancer he can only hope to drink into remission.The Barb Goffman Presents series showcases the best in mo...