Short stuff

I've been reading a lot of short stories lately and thought I'd recommend a few tonight.

On Tuesday I received the new Alfred Hitchcock double issue dated January/February 1010. I've been reading through it and found a number of particularly strong stories:

"Game" by Janet E. Irvin is a classic suspense story with some truly chilling moments. Very precisely observed.

"The God of Right and Wrong" by Steven Gore is a dark, twisty piece of work with exactly the right kind of payoff. Gore's s good a writer you find yourself lingering on his sentences.

"Midnight" by K.J. Egan takes us into a judge's chambers and give us a look at what his employees do--very nice

"The Case of The Vanishing Boy" is my special favorite. Kristin Kathryn Rusch, equally at home with mystery and science fiction, takes us to a modern science fiction convention and introduces us to a pair of fascinating and very weird protagonists. The story is a hoot.

Since I skip around in my reading I haven't read all the stories in the issue as yet.
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Yesterday I received the new Ellery Queen for January 2010.

So far I've read only "Who Knows Where It Goes" by Lawrence Block, a devious and ironic comment on the current economy, Bloch showing us how it should be done.

"The Death of Ramona"--a brand new motive for a private eye story
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From Hottest Blood 1993 (anthology edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett)

Nobody writes as powerfully and elegantly about the borderline separating obsessive sexuality and madness as Thomas Tessier. In "The Last Crossing" Tessier presents the kind of mid-life crisis that makes the readers of The New York Post positively orgasmic. A knock-out.
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From Thriller 2 edited by Clive Cussler

So much "dark" fiction strikes me as contrived from other books and stories--not "Iced" by Henry Hunsicker. One of the most disturbing word-perfect crime stories I've read in a long, long time. It has a police blotter reality to it that's undeniable. Somebody should give it an award.