{"id":8869,"date":"2021-03-01T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8869"},"modified":"2021-02-28T18:28:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T23:28:18","slug":"living-to-tell-the-tale-eqmm-march-april-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8869","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLiving to Tell the Tale\u201d \u2013 EQMM March\/April 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The title of this issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine<\/em><\/a> reminds readers how grateful they are that so many authors\u201420 in this issue alone\u2014lived long enough to tell their tales and continue to do so! I should add a 21st<\/sup> writer\u2014Dean Jobb<\/a>\u2014who writes the \u201cStranger Than Fiction\u201d column. Probably many writers keep a file of head-shaking stories they know they\u2019ll never use because, \u201cwho\u2019d believe it?\u201d I have a file like that. Lots of stellar tales in this issue, and here are four that stood out for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho Stole the Afikomen?\u201d by Elizabeth Zelvin<\/a> \u2013 After reading Liz Zelvin\u2019s story, you\u2019ll feel you\u2019ve already done Passover this year (my Seder table pictured). The bantering among the family members across generations is perfection. Sharon take her new fianc\u00e9 (the narrator; nice use of \u201cexternal viewpoint\u201d) to his first Seder and to meet the family. Her mother has thinly disguised objections. Bad enough that he\u2019s not Jewish, he\u2019s a cop. I loved this can\u2019t-win exchange, which starts with the mother\u2019s line: \u201cThis is what I get for sending you to Harvard Law?\u201d \u201cYou didn\u2019t send me to Harvard Law! I worked every day through high school and college and went into debt up to the eyeballs so I wouldn\u2019t have to ask you.\u201d \u201cSo you didn\u2019t trust your mother and father to give you an education?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCold Hard Facts\u201d by Chad Baker \u2013 The corrosive effects of suspicion taint a woman\u2019s view of her husband. Surely, he couldn\u2019t have murdered their awful landlord. Or?? Insightful line: \u201cShe did not fear Adam. She feared the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, I Meant to Do That\u201d by Mat Coward<\/a> \u2013 I\u2019m a pushover for stories about grifters and con artists. In this tale, a near-retirement grifter is recruited by an oddball assortment of \u201ccivilians\u201d to devise a con on a wealthy and successful man who\u2019s cheated them. Though they\u2019re inexperienced, their Fagin gives them each a role, and it\u2019s fun watching them play it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Phone Message\u201d by Robert Cummins<\/a> \u2013 a juicy police procedural in which the detective turns over every investigative stone in the hope he won\u2019t find anything. And his suspect appears to be giving him free rein. Cummins really has you rooting for these dueling protagonists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intrigued by great stories like this? Subscribe to EQMM<\/em> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of this issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine reminds readers how grateful they are that so many authors\u201420 in this issue alone\u2014lived long enough to tell their tales and continue to do so! I should add a 21st … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"\u201cLiving to Tell the Tale\u201d \u2013 EQMM March\/April 2021 - Four especially noteworthy stories, out of many. ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[62,52,54,126,120],"tags":[1838,1836,1840,1837,1839],"class_list":["post-8869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-crime","category-detective","category-reading-2","category-short-story","tag-chad-baker","tag-elizabeth-zelvin","tag-eqmm","tag-mat-coward","tag-robert-cummins"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2j3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8869"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8873,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8869\/revisions\/8873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}