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koinonia

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  1. EQMM May 1973. "Nothing But The Truth" by Patricia McGerr. Sweet little 14 pg story. Petrol station owner Nathan is in love with Ruth when Brad, the town bully decides to steal her for himself. After marriage and some rough treatment, friends of hers find her dead in her house. The time of death can easily be linked to a phone call, a Sunday TV evangelical program, and when Brad was logged in to get petrol that morning at Nathan's service station. Nathan finds Brad's alibi could stick if he tells the truth about the logged time and the supposed time of murder, making his sworn enemy innocent and free. But will it stick. Will Nathan tell the truth or lie to get back at Brad. Really wish and hope someone has made this story into an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" or something. One of the best, for sure.
  2. 2 quick reviews today. AHMM July 1987 "Roger Mr Whilkie!!" by Eric H Heideman. A quirky tale of the demented Mr Whilkie who is always over thinking every situation by every person he comes in contact with. And I loved the fact that he just kept getting weirder and weirder by joining certain groups to protest. Lots of great humour in this tale. The other I've just read is from EQMM February 1998 "The Halfway Woman" by Clark Howard. I'm seriously loving (the late) Howard's writing. Clark always goes into a lot of detail - this time about the parole officers role in helping those just out of prison re-establish themselves into society. I'll be reading a lot more of his short stories even more.
  3. Pretty much anthologies related to or mystery short stories. AHMM and EQMM inspired, I guess. Lots of a antholgy books out there. Recommend using ThriftBooks to grab lots for cheap.
  4. EQMM June 1985 "The Crime of the Century" by Edward D Hoch (also under R. L. Stevens in EQMM August 1977) A smashing quick tale set in June 1885 of a crooked lot trying to steal the cargo of a large cruise ship. The date, the New York setting and the nice ending, played out very well at 8 pages for me.
  5. So, what I want is a place where I can write down quick reviews of the short stories I've been reading. I don't want novels or ref to novel length books. K.I.S.S. Keep It Short & Simple And, if anyone else reads a good short story and want to encourage others, write a quick review here. It's all about community support during these crazy times of isolation and despair. Anyone with me? - Paul Scholz Boonah, Queensland, Australia.
  6. G'day from Australia. Recently, I fell in love with the short stories of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (AHMM) and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (EQMM) that I bought them all. Since 2019, I've purchased every single issue of EQMM from 1960 to present and every single issue of AHMM (bar 2) from 1957 to present. Here's my bio, then I'll discuss how I'd like this reading group to work. About me... In July 2018, I lost my good buddy to cancer. He was someone I would chat/text to each day. It left such a void in my 50 year old single life along with occasional bouts of depression. And I know I needed something to fill it. It was while attending a Hash House Harriers walking group in January 2019, that someone was sharing mystery books of James Patterson. Even though I wasn't a fan of long novels (the big reveal after 400 pages only meant that I had forgotten all the characters by the time 2 months of reading had passed), it did encourage me to check out the Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines online. After some rather poor Kindle versions, I made my first real purchase of 100 back issues in February 2019. And loved them enough to start collecting them. It was while reading a Alfred Hitchcock The Best of Mystery book, that I discovered the joy of short stories by reading The Cost of Kent Castwell by Avram Davidson. I found the subtle end so funny - that Kent was going to cost the local council even more dead from murder than he was alive - that I began collecting more and now have found all the Alfred Hitchcock books and almost have a complete collection of Anthologies. Around that same time, in another forum in another part of the world, a lady started sharing her Open Library mystery anthology books that she had pain-stakingly fixed all the scanned errors from - something that would take 4 to 12 hours a day. So I've now got 350+ ebooks to enjoy. (she only shares what's readily available from the Open Library - no recent publications) Then I discovered the wonders of ThriftBooks in the USA. The very cheap postage and price finally made it affordable for me to purchase more books. Along with eBay, I've now collected 300+ anthologies and - August 2020 (18 months later) - 1,491 combined mystery magazines (in print, scan, digital, Kindle and digital Magzter app purchases). I'm only missing 2 AHMM in the entire range - yes, I do have the very first issue from December 1956 and those wonderful larger format issues from 1958 and, while outside my range, I recently picked up a good scan of the very first Ellery Queen mystery magazine from Fall 1941, which I can read on my mobile. I love short mysteries that I can read in half an hour, and feel rewarded when it ends in a nice twist. My dislike is supernatural, ghost and straight horror stories My current favourite authors are Henry Slesar, Edward D Hoch, Peter Lovesay, Joyce Carol Oates, Clark Howard, Bill Pronzini, Jack Ritchie and more. What would make my reading experience better, is to share this new love of reading short mystery stories with other mystery lovers. I'm not, as much, into writing mysteries, but I love reading and sharing with others online. Any help in this, contacts, new reading friends, new forums, etc.. are appreciated. These stories have filled part of the void left by my buddy. And I'm hoping that, by making new friends and reading these great mysteries, it can continue to be filled. I live in Australia, 52, single and enjoy life in the dry country with my very fussy 14 year old cat.
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