Authors in This Issue
“Santa Dash in Blue” by Pat Black
Glasgow native Pat Black lives in Yorkshire with his family. Glasgow detective DI Lomond debuted in EQMM in 2019 and has appeared in the novel To Pay The Ferryman with a sequel, Jack-In-The-Box, due out in February. The author is a journalist and the author of several thrillers including The Family and The Winter House (Head of Zeus).
“Death in Little Village” by Walid Tijerina
Walid Tijerina is a doctoral graduate of the University of York. He has previously published research articles in scientific journals and a book about Mexico’s political economy (Routlege, UK). The author has won several Mexican prizes both in fiction and nonfiction, but this is his first fiction publication.
“Lord of Misrule” by Thomas K. Carpenter
Thomas K. Carpenter tells us it took some time to work his series hero Magistrate Ovid into this tale spun around the festival of Saturnalia. The author and former corporate engineer’s short fiction has appeared in AHMM and EQMM, he has self-published over thirty books, and he is the author of the Hundred Halls fantasy series and accompanying board game.
“The Yellow Dog” by Tapani Bagge
Tapani Bagge is the author of several dozen crime novels in addition to plays, comic books, and scripts for television and radio. In his novels, he writes for both adult and young-adult audiences. This translation by Virgnia author Josh Pachter goes back to policeman Mujunen’s first case in Helsinki, 1927.
“Season of Giving” by Anna Scotti
Anna Scotti’s poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in places like the New Yorker, Bon Appetit, People, and elsewhere. Of her Librarian on the Run series—much of which debuted in EQMM—collected in It’s Not Even Past, The Critic’s Jeremy Black said, “These are brilliant stories. . . . Deserves classic status.”
“Aurora Australis” by Mandy Lange
Mandy Lange is an award-winning writer and a “forever-meddling kid who solves mysteries daily on her scrappy homestead in Michigan.” She won the Writer’s Playground Ninth Short Story Competition in 2024 and the WestWord Hermit Crab Prize in 2025 and specializes in short and flash fiction.
“The Final Problem” by Terence Faherty
This is the final story in Terence Faherty’s current series of Holmes parodies that have appeared in EQMM. The author, known for his Owen Keane and Scott Elliott novel series, has said he sees “storytelling and mystery solving as linked . . . especially the private eye story. . . . A problem is posed and a hero sets out to resolve it.”
“Murder Me in the Neon Lights” by C.W. Blackwell
California author C.W. Blackwell has twice won and five times been nominated for the Derringer Award. His novella Hard Mountain Clay (Shotgun Honey Books, 2023) and his debut short-story collection Whatever Kills the Pain (Rock and a Hard Place, 2025) are both available.
“Darkness of the Moon” by Shelly Dickson Carr
Shelly Dickson Carr says her “love for mysteries was ignited . . . thanks to her grandfather, the renowned mystery writer John Dickson Carr. [Her mother] Julia McNiven was also a mystery writer, making Shelly a third generation mystery writer.” Carr lives in Boston, but this tale conjures up a summer night in the American South.
“An Rud a Chaill Muid Sa Díle” by Stephen M. Pierce
Stephen M. Pierce is a marketing coordinator for a nonprofit residential center and daycare in Asheville, NC. His fiction has appeared in Cowboy Jamboree, Bone Parade, Glass Mountain, and The Most Dangerous Games (Level Best). We have another story featuring this narrative’s amateur sleuth coming up!
“Where’s Pete?” by Nick Guthrie
Nick Guthrie is a crime writer based in East Anglia, U.K., and his work has sold to AHMM, Black Cat Weekly, and a variety of other magazines and anthologies. He is pseudonymously the author of more than twenty books, and his work has been shortlisted for various awards. You can find out more about the author and his work at www.nickguthrie.co.uk.
“Dear Mr. Townsend” by E.A. Aymar
Critically acclaimed writer E.A. Aymar was born in Panama and lives in the DC/MD/VA triangle. Booklist noted of his recent thriller When She Left, that it balances “high-stakes violence tempered by humor and disarmingly sympathetic antiheroes.” A frequent contributor to the Washington Post, Aymar is a member of Crime Writers of Color and Sisters in Crime.
“Crumbs” by LaToya Jovena
LaToya Jovena lives in the D.C. suburbs with her family. Her short fiction has appeared in EQMM, AHMM, The Best American Mystery and Suspense, and the EQMM anthology Twisted Voices (Level Best). She read her tale “What Kind of Criminal?” for the EQMM Fiction Podcast in 2023.
“The Adventures of the Belgravian Banshee” by Michael Mallory
Michael Mallory is known for the Amelia Watson, Hollywood detective Dave Beauchamp, and zoologist sleuth Lavender “Snake” Jones series. The author has contributed short mystery fiction to various anthologies and publications. As an animation and film historian he has written over 600 articles, frequently for places like Variety and the Los Angeles Times.
“Sherlock Holmes Has Domestic Troubles” by Andrew Armstrong
Cooperstown, NY native Andrew Armstrong has published short stories, poems, and cartoons in various publications including The Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, Parade, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Reader’s Digest. You can check out his website, www.rapunzelcat.com, for examples of his work.
“The Great Almond Heist” by Smita Harish Jain
Smita Harish Jain is a two-time International Thriller Writers Award nominee for Best Short Story. She has more than twenty stories published or forthcoming in places like Black Cat Weekly and anthologies for Mystery Writers of America, Bouchercon, and Akashic Noir. She grew up in Mumbai and works as a professor, two experiences that inform her writing.
“221C Baker Street” by David Fryer
David Fryer’s first published story, “Snow Diagnosis,” appeared in Witcraft magazine’s online edition, and he tells EQMM he is continuing to develop his voice in the mystery and suspense genres. We are happy to include this lighthearted tale in our Holmes issue.
“Skeleton Crew” by V.G. Burke
Debut author V.G. Burke has fifteen years experience in law enforcement and another fifteen teaching criminal justice at the college level. We think readers will enjoy the energy of this story about a veteran searching for a new mission and finding one in his Savannah, GA community.
“Coins in the Box” by Kate Hohl
Kate Hohl won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award in 2024 for her EQMM story “The Body in Cell Two,” and she also won the 2024 Claymore Award at Killer Nashville. She spoke about “The Sherlock Effect” on a Bouchercon 2025 panel and wrote about a historical case on our blog, SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN!, in May 2023.