Wicked Wednesday–Crime Short Stories

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by Barb, in Key West, where the crime column used to be the funniest thing in the newspaper

During February, our Wicked Wednesdays will explore various crime subgenres and forms. Since February is the shortest month, we’re starting with short stories.

Wickeds, tell us–crime shorts–do you like them? Do you write them? Favorite stories, authors, collections, publications. Lay it on me.

Edith/Maddie: I love reading short stories and I do write them, usually two or three a year. (I just counted them on my website – I’ve had thirty published!) My stories have appeared in conference or themed anthologies, in the Best New England Crime Stories collections, and in both Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Three have been nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Short Story. I enjoy writing darker in my short fiction, playing with unusual characters or premises, and giving myself a change of pace from writing series novels.

Julie: Edith, that’s amazing. I have published short stories, and I write them. But I find it a very difficult genre. Usually I end up starting a novel. Lately, though, I find them a fun way to explore genres I don’t usually write. A little darker (though never dark), a bit more noir.

Sherry: As a kid I read a short story collection called Night in Funland and Other Stories. Even though the book is long gone, I’ve never forgotten the short story Night in Funland. It scared me! I managed to track it down and you can read it here. The first short stories I wrote as an adult were for the Edgar Allen Cozy collection some of The Wickeds wrote stories for. Writing short stories is hard, but I have a short story, The Ultimate Bounty Hunter, coming out in the Three Strikes You’re Dead anthology this spring.

Jessie: I am so impressed! I never write short stories even though I often enjoy reading them. I particularly like those written by Agatha Chris.tie. It’s fun to see a master at work in a different format!

Barb: I wrote a lot of short stories in the years of busy jobs and kids. For the last several years the novellas I’ve written for Kensington have scratched that particular itch. Since I’ve been here in Key West this year I’ve heard Karen Russell speak, author of the brilliant St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, and Ann Beattie, whose latest collection is Onlookers. Both fascinating speakers. My favorite short story writer is Alice Munro (not an original choice I know–there’s that Nobel Prize for one thing). My favorite short story is Horseman by Richard Russo, which I believe is perfect. My favorite crime short story is “The Woman in the Wardrobe,” in Death of a Salesperson and Other Untimely Events by Robert Barnard. I urge you to try them all.

Readers: Do you like short stories? What makes a good one or makes you like them, or what makes them not your choice? Tell us a favorite.

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Published by Barbara Ross

Barbara Ross is the author of twelve Maine Clambake Mystery novels and six novellas. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com

34 Thoughts

  1. I’ve read a few short stories, most with characters from full-length novels, like Maine Clambake. My favorite short story is “Ticket To Ride” that I co-write with Kristopher Zgorski which was recently nominated for an Agatha Award For Best Short Story.

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  2. I do like short stories. I’ve ready a couple of good collections lately, one from the Florida Gulf Coast chapter of Sisters in Crime, and Happiness is a Warm Gun, featuring the fabulous Dru Ann Love/Kristopher Zgorski collaboration “Ticket to Ride,” now an Agatha nominee.

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  3. I love short stories: I’ve been writing them professionally since 1968, editing anthologies of them since 1983, and translating them from various languages (mostly Dutch) since 1985. I was excited when Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski agreed to tackle writing fiction for the first time for my HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN: CRIME FICTION INSPIRED BY THE SONGS OF THE BEATLES anthology last year, and thrilled earlier this week when their “Ticket to Ride” was named one of the five finalists for this year’s Best Short Story Agatha!

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    1. Congratulations to the editor who had the smarts to assign and includes the story as well, Josh. As a former editor myself, of Best New England Crime Stories, I know how gratifying it is to have a story and its authors recognized.

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  4. In general I don’t like short stories , not enough meat in them, done too soon! Our book club does occasionally read them so I’ve begrudgingly got them on my ‘have read’ list. However I will ad this caveat, Edith and Barb ‘s short stories have intrigued me, given me a few laughs and I’m glad I’ve read some of them.

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    1. Oh, that’s lovely to say Anita. Thank you. The novella length helps to make those stories more immersive. But then there’s Alice Munro, who writes an entire novel in every short story.

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  5. I do enjoy reading short stories. Often I find myself with the desire to read, but time is limited. That’s when the short story really comes in handy. You know it’s a good one when at the end there is a complete story told, but the characters and the plot have you hoping that a series is going to come out of it in the future.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  6. WOW! You are all so multi-talented! After all you do to write the cozies that we all love, you still have time and energy to write short stories!!! That is remarkable! I must confess that reading the suggestions you posted in this blog are tempting, but I have enough pressure to get to the books on my TBR pile, plus the audiobooks and those on Kindle, that I am closing my eyes, and moving forward to continue reading the cozies I must read and then those I must review are a priority also 🙂 Thank you for showering us with so many hours of fun in so many ways! It is interesting that as I read your books, I learn so much about each one of you, which you translate into the pages of your books via characters and descriptions…but I know you are not murderers :-)!!! Joy! Luis at ole dot travel

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  7. I’m not a big fan of short stories, but I have a few classic ones I like: The Lottery; A Rose for Emily; The Widget, The Wodget, and Boff. But I prefer full length mysteries so I can immerse myself in the story. Barbara’s novellas are an exception, but I think that’s because I’m already familiar with the backstory of the places and people. Also, she’s just a great writer!

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    1. Thank you, Ginny. Writing the novellas is tricky because I need to move the characters along for my regular readers and also make sure the story stands alone for the people who pick up the book for one of the other authors or who only read the novellas. I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed them.

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  8. When I started writing fiction I began with short stories. Then I hardly ever wrote one until this past year when I was asked to write one for an anthology. I like reading them every once in a while. I do prefer novels.

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  9. I’ve devoted my writing career to short stories. One favorite is John Connolly’s utterly charming “The Caxton Private Lending Library and Book Depository,” which is really a novelette (or maybe a novella) at 78 pages. It’s a love letter to book lovers and can be purchased individually at Amazon and maybe elsewhere. Another story I loved was Art Taylor’s “Parallel Play,” which appeared in Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning (which I co-edited). It had such emotional resonance. Finally I’ll give a shout-out to “Living on Borrowed Time” by Melissa H. Blaine. It appeared in the crime/time travel anthology I edited, “Crime Travel.” This story was so fun, I made it the first one in the book.

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  10. I enjoy the novellas that some of the Wickeds bundle with two other authors with a holiday theme, such as the Christmas Mittens Murder novellas. Besides that, I like the short novellas that you write within a series. (Sometimes you have a book #5 and then a #5.5 before book #6.) The problem for me is that I read only printed books. If it is offered only in kindle form, I have to skip it.

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  11. I do like short stories, especially for bedtime reading. They are usually just long enough to engage and short enough that I finish them before lights out! I am trying to re-exercise my short story muscles with submissions to several anthologies this year. We’ll see how it goes. Favorites, oh, yes, many, but I’d be afraid to list them and leave someone out!

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    1. I enjoy a story story anthology from time to time. It’s an enjoyable change of pace from novel length stories.

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  12. I don’t tend to read short stories. I can barely keep up with the novels I want to read, either new ones coming out or books in series I am trying to catch up on. So the anthologies I buy sit on my shelves unread.

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  13. I’m not into short stories. I like something longer and more in depth. Short stories are too “short”. I like to spend more time reading about a place, people,and a situation. Three to four hundred pages gives enough time to really get involved in the story.

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  16. I have read a few books of short stories and really enjoyed them, but it has been a while. I need to find some new favorites. Old favorites: Grab Bag by Charlotte MacLeod, “Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories” by Agatha Christie (of course), and short stories by the Medieval Murderers, a group of authors of medieval mysteries who collaborated on several books.

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