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.