Time is tight. Consider reserving a bit of it to feed your imagination and creativity. A story a day! Have a complete experience in half an hour, give or take. Be entertained, enlightened, intellectually stimulated. Drawn into another world.

You’ll find eighteen outstanding stories in the July/August 2018 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. (And what a great cover image by Brian Stauffer!) These talented authors, within the space of a few pages, will immerse you in the lives of their characters with their mind-bending dilemmas, relatable motives and desires. I’ve chosen seven of the stories here and offer one sentence on each. Shorts on shorts—no spoilers!

Mahadevi, by Jane Haddam

Hinduism and philosophical reflections on the nature of good and evil, the spiritual and material, distinguish this compulsively readable tale of sibling rivalry and familial discord.

Edgewise, by Louisa Luna

In this atmospheric story, the author’s laconic style and insight into human behavior subtly draws you into the essence of two lives, white and black, capturing their respective experiences of revenge, race relations, and policing.

English 398: Fiction Workshop, by Art Taylor

This multiple award-winning author successfully experiments with a non-linear structure, interwoven points of view, and a bit of valuable pedagogy in this humorous crime tale, a unique twist on a familiar aspect of college campus life.

The Mercy of Thaddeus Burke, by David Dean

Master storyteller David Dean makes you feel for his Irish mobster characters in their conflict over a generational changing of the guard, leaving you to ponder questions of competing loyalties.

The Professor, by Janice Law

There’s nothing obvious about this cleverly plotted, tightly written tale of deception and just deserts.

Hotel Story, by Sigrid Nunez

A reflective piece of flash fiction, the story taps a personal mystery each of us has experienced at one time in life.

Last Call, by Gemma Clarke

In “The Department of First Stories” of the magazine, this fiction debut impresses with its imaginative criminal design of stealth.

So, dive in and have fun! In addition to these stories, the issue includes stories by John H. Dirckx, Timothy O’Leary, Peter Turnbull, Marvin Kaye, Jane Jakeman, William Dylan Powell, Peter Lovesey, Thomas K. Carpenter, Amy Myers, François Bloemhof, and Alaric Hunt.

For more stories, check out my collection Love and Crime. Two of the eleven stories were first published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.