mystery and crime short fiction

  • But Not Forgotten by Martin Roy Hill

    That moment that his face I see, I know the man that must hear me: To him my tale I teach. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge I didn’t set out to kill Frank Adams because I wanted his money. There was little enough of that left in the family to bicker over, let alone kill for….

  • The Uninvited Spook by C. D. Reimer

    When you’re in the spy business it pays to remember that you’re never off the job, even at a party. He adjusted the parabolic microphone to aim at the apartment building across the street. The angle wasn’t perfect for this type of surveillance since he had to hide in the shadows of an air conditioning…

  • The Woman Who Rowed Away by Tom Swoffer

    A former police officer finds a boatload of trouble while looking for a woman who goes missing after a row around the lake. I was sitting on the deck of my family-inherited summer cottage, nursing my third seven-seven and watching the late afternoon sun setting like a dark purple bruise over the lake, when I…

  • Hazard Pay by Nick Andreychuk

    Simple jobs have a way of becoming more complicated, but that’s why they pay you the big bucks, isn’t it? The stench of stale urine made me want to vomit into the piss-warm beer I was drinking from a dirty glass. I tried to ignore it because I’d picked the stool at the end of…

  • Submissions Open

    Plan B is now open to submissions for Volume II. Please carefully review the submission guidelines and then send us your best mystery, crime, thriller, suspense story. We are also looking for artwork for the cover of the second anthology. More info in the guidelines.

  • Polly Wants… by Kou K. Nelson

    Jealousy — the catalyst for many a crime story. Usually the characters are all human, though. “Good morning, Polly,” the lady said as she walked into the room. She flung open the drapes, illuminating the small office. “Good morning,” the parrot said, bobbing its grey head, shuffling its feet back and forth on her perch….

  • Three Times a Killer by Michael Haynes

    When a job seems to be easy money, maybe what you were hired for isn’t exactly why you’re there. I was sitting at a bar, drinking another Black Label, when the man came up to me. I should have known he was bad news, a fellow like that with his nice suit, in a low-rent bar like…

  • Trouble’s Bruin by Laird Long

    A big city private eye is visiting home in the hopes of getting a few days away from crime. But crime can be found anywhere, even the college football field in a small town. Unfortunately. Today’s story is sponsored by Martin Roy Hill, author of the military mystery thriller The Killing Depths, and Duty: Suspense and…

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