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Welcome to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine! Each month our magazine is packed with original mystery short stories varying from short-shorts to novellas. You will find every type of mystery fiction from classic whodunits to hardboiled tales to suspense, and everything in between! Each issue is packed with the best mystery has to offer. Plus you'll enjoy author interviews, writing contests, and our "Mystery Classic" — an outstanding tale from the genre's past. For a taste of what's inside AHMM, one of the world's leading mystery magazines, check out the story excerpts, book reviews, and mystery puzzle right here on this site, or listen to a podcast of a few of our stories. Don't miss out — Subscribe today!
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Crime and Mystery authors write the wrongs, but don’t always right them. On display in this issue is a variety of transgressions, and appropriately for a double issue, the stories in our summer edition proceed two by two—almost. Fixers: retired fixer “The Big Hit” Jones returns to help his protégé Akin retrieve his stepfather’s Harley from the clutches of a payday loan operation in “Stimulus Money” by Dan Warthman; while Robert S. Levinson’s former LAPD detective turned fixer to the Hollywood stars, Chris Blanchard, hears the confession of a bit player on death row in “In the Land of Make-Believe.” Procedurals: a routine stop leads to an unusual case for Maine Border Patrol Agent Peyton Cote in “Autumn’s Crossing” by John R. Corrigan; while an apparent dueling death may prove deceiving in O’Neil de Noux’s “For Love’s Sake.” Private Investigators: Professor Minerva Woodhouse goes undercover to investigate possible misdeeds in a nursing home in “Murder Will Speak” by B. K. Stevens; while Beat poet Ellery Delgardo solves a murder to preserve his good standing in a Greenwich Village coffeehouse in the 1950s in “The Red Envelope” by Robert Lopresti—the winner of this year’s Black Orchid Novella Award. Unclassifiable: James L. Ross offers a tale with few redeeming characters on either side of the law in “The Freezer”; and our Mystery Classic “Go-Between” by Fred MacIsaac concludes in the second of two parts.
Finally, it is a pleasure to congratulate B. K. Stevens on the nomination of her story “Thea’s First Husband” for an Agatha Award for Best Short Story. “Thea’s First Husband” appeared in our June 2012 issue.
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If you missed B. K. Stevens' Agatha-nominated story "Thea's First Husband" in the June 2012 issue, don't miss it here!
MYSTERY PLACE BOOKS announces a new DIGITAL ANTHOLOGY:
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine Presents: 13 Tales of New American Gothic. Get your copy today!
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine BLOG
Join the conversation. . .
at Trace Evidence, where Linda Landrigan and guests blog about mysteries, short stories, and the craft of writing.
AHMM Podcasts
We are now hosting the very best of crime fiction podcasts! Visit our Podcast page to hear great mystery stories from our pages, complete with exclusive author interviews and fun tidbits.
The digital version of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine is now available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple iPad, Zinio, Magzter, and Sony.
BLACK ORCHID NOVELLA AWARD
AHMM and The Wolfe Pack, the official Nero Wolfe appreciation society, team up each year to sponsor an annual writing contest that seeks to honor an unpublished work of fiction written in the tradition of the Nero Wolfe mystery stories by Rex Stout. Rex Stout was a master of the novella form and published dozens of novellas featuring the corpulent and irascible detective Nero Wolfe and his sidekick Archie Goodwin. Today, the novella is uncommon, though AHMM has a long tradition of publishing novellas. More information on the contest, including submission guidelines, can be found here.
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Murder Will Speak
By B.K. Stevens
Art by Linda Weatherly
“It’s not about the money, really,” Rose Crane said. “Mostly, we’re just concerned about our mother.”
“Yeah, we’re really concerned about our mother,” Glen Kramden said. “It’s not just about the money, mostly.”
You could pretty much tell they were sister and brother—same sandy-colored hair, same pale blue eyes, same rigorously straight nose, same smoothly oval face climaxing, abruptly, in a squared-off chin. Both looked around forty, both in good shape, both fashionably dressed.
“But you are upset by the changes in her will,” Miss Woodhouse said. Nothing fashionable about her—almost six feet tall, big boned, lean, black-gray hair pulled back hard and caught at the nape of her neck with a thick blue rubber band, boxy beige suit, zero makeup. In my opinion, though, she had Rose Crane and Glen Kramden outclassed.
“The changes in the will are symptoms,” Rose said, “of problems that obviously go deeper. Until two months ago, Mother was fine. Oh, she got depressed after Father died—they’d been happily married for over fifty years. She felt lonely in that big house, all by herself. That’s why she moved to AdenHarbor.”. . .
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The Freezer
By James L. Ross
Art by Robyn Hyzy
In the narrow hall between the police department and the town offices, Roy Bigelow chafed his winter-raw hands.
“Well, Roy, are you going to go look for my husband?” Patsy Crile demanded. Her voice was high, and it blended with the wind’s shrilling just outside the door. Patsy prompted: “Elijah could be dead under a snowbank for all you care!”
She stomped a few feet farther into the police office, tracking snow, peeking at desks, hoping that somebody might be on duty besides Roy.
“Three hours Elijah’s been gone,” she said. Her chin came up, round like a pink boxing glove. Back where the cells were, somebody bellowed, but she paid no attention. The town had three full-time drunks, at least one of whom was always sleeping or making noise in a cell. Patsy’s husband Elijah wouldn’t be back there; he was a seasonal drinker, from mid-November until the last frost, which might be in April. Fifteen years ago, he had been a two-term mayor, which bought him some slack from Roy and the other cops.
Patsy wasn’t worried. She knew that Elijah was down at the Yard Arm, pacing himself. But going to fetch him would mean marching four blocks into snow driving straight into her eyes. . . .
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A Mysterious Photograph contest — Submit your 250-word story inspired by an imagination-stirring photograph. The winning story is published in a future issue.
An intriguing, and challenging, mystery-themed puzzle.
Booked and Printed — Book reviews of interest to mystery readers.
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