November 2025
CRIME NOTES AND ANECDOTES
FROM ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Happy Nearly Thanksgiving!
I’ve been thinking about life lessons as the year draws to a close, inspired by—of all things—a paintbrush. Way back when, the summer after my freshman year in college, I took a job as a painter’s helper with Ralph Parazzo, a neighbor in my little village of Lima, New York. Mr. Parazzo, a high school math teacher whose slightly older kids had babysat us from time to time, had a strict routine: the Monday after classes ended for the year (late in June, this being New York State), he loaded up his station wagon and spent the summer as a house painter.
From the outset, he taught me the importance of hard work and diligence, picking me up each morning at 7:30 a.m. sharp and dropping me home at 6:30 each evening. Our break for lunch—always packed—was exactly thirty minutes. Over that summer, he taught me everything I know about painting, techniques that I use to this day (including while I painted our bedroom this month). More important than those tips, however, was the example he provided in the right way to work, from being on time to doing the job right. Far and away, the lesson he taught that resonated the most was the grace he showed the day a customer called to complain about paint not adhering properly: I had done something wrong, and we had to return and fix it. Mr. Parazzo’s exact words are lost to time, but in my memory, they boiled down to: “You made a mistake. We’re going to fix it. Be sure to do better next time.”
In honor of the lessons we learn when young, and in memory of a great mentor who sadly has passed, here’s an action shot of me hard at work in my most glamorous outfit.
This month’s newsletter—now reaching more than 500 subscribers; thank you!!!—features an expanded events calendar, a bunch of short story news, and more recommended reads. But first …
We’re not huge sports fans, but the Toronto Blue Jays’ run for the World Series was captivating, partly because it was so much fun seeing how excited our Toronto relatives were. We retired to our favorite taproom, ThunderWing Brewing, to catch a few innings of the last game.
(A second reason to cheer on the Jays was that, as some of you know, freelance courier Mercury Carter is half-Canadian, and growing up in Rochester, considered the Blue Jays his home team. “No One Goes Out To Eat Anymore,” a Carter story set in Toronto, was published in the sadly defunct Mystery Magazine in 2023, but the issue featuring that story is still available on Amazon.)
Earlier this month, a friend and I had the amazing, and slightly surreal, experience of seeing Paul McCartney in concert in Columbus. Surreal because this is a musician whose songs have been in my head for six decades and I had to pinch myself several times at the fact that I was SEEING AN ACTUAL BEATLE. (The concert paired nicely with watching Elton John in the pouring rain with a friend and my mom in Buffalo in 1976, and seeing the the Rolling Stones with Pam and 100,000 of our closest friends in Ohio Stadium in 2016.)
Finally, this month’s obligatory cat pictures find Stretch channeling her best “Legolas” ears as she hangs out right below my office chair …
… while Bubba surveys his dominion through our new front screen door…
THE MAILMAN and ANDY HAYES
I’m roughly 40,000 words into the third Mercury Carter adventure, which, with a working title of Address Unknown, continues a certain postal name theme. I do most of my fiction writing early, between around 6:30-9:30 a.m., working on my laptop in a chair in the living room, usually wearing my ball cap du jour. I find that sitting hunched over my computer like that is the closest I can get to using a typewriter or, going further back, handwriting a manuscript. Mid-morning, I retire upstairs, connect my laptop to a large monitor, and work on mostly administrative stuff.
My ball caps du jour…
A reminder that pre-orders are available for The Delivery, coming March 24. Check with your local independent bookstore for pre-order options.
Also, there is a Goodreads giveaway contest for The Delivery underway right now. Sign up here!
Looking for Christmas gifts for that private eye mystery loving relative? Copies of Andy Hayes mysteries from Ohio University Press are 40% off through Dec. 11: just insert promo code SNOW in the “Enter promo code” field when checking out.
SHORT FICTION
Speaking of Mercury Carter, he features in two short stories available now. The first, “A Christmas Delivery,” was commissioned by The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City (recently voted the best indie bookstore in America), and is available for FREE as part of any book purchase made after Thanksgiving in-store, online, or by phone. The story finds Carter delivering a valuable copy of Thou Shell of Death, an English Golden Age mystery, to the bookstore, when, as usual, things go awry.
In the second story, Carter is making the last of four deliveries in Joplin, Missouri, when a man claiming his car broke down asks for a ride. Carter has his suspicions, which are soon confirmed in deadly fashion, in “Proactive Measures,” out this week in Black Cat Weekly.
Meanwhile, troubled by terrifying visions, a young woman turns to a trusted mentor for help. My short horror story, “Rapture,” was published earlier this month by Flash Phantoms and is available to read for free online.
A sad short story note: Mystery publisher Down & Out Books abruptly shut down this fall, stranding many authors it published. I had the privilege of seeing several of my short stories published in Down & Out anthologies, including “The Mailman” in Mickey Finn 21st-Century Noir, Vol. I, in 2020, the very first outing of Mercury Carter. The good news is that other publishers will be republishing several Down & Out anthologies. Although the reasons behind the closing are complicated, it was a reminder to, whenever possible, consider purchasing your next read from your local, independently owned bookstore, or asking your library to stock a book from a smaller publisher if you don’t see it in their collection.
UPCOMING EVENTS
While I don't list my book club engagements on this calendar, I'm always happy to visit book clubs to talk about my novels specifically and mystery writing in general. Drop me a line if you'd like to set something up.
Tuesday, Dec. 2, 7 p.m., Gramercy Books, Bexley, Ohio. Join me as I'm in conversation with crime novelist Robin Yocum on the launch of his new book, The Last Hitman.
Saturday, Dec. 13, 2-4 p.m., Polaris Fashion Place, 2nd Floor, Delaware, Ohio. Conversation and book signing with me and fellow mystery authors Robin Yocum, Connie Berry, and Rosalyn Ransaw.
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6-7:30 p.m., Blue Couch Bookshop, Grandview Heights, Ohio. Join me for a free evening of conversation about the justice system as attorney Rachel Troutman, a veteran death penalty defense attorney, and I discuss the 1955 play Inherit the Wind, along with my book on the history of capital punishment in Ohio, No Winners Here Tonight, in a celebration of Ohio authors presented by the Ohioana Library.
Tuesday, Jan. 20, 6-7 p.m., Storyline Bookstore, Upper Arlington, Ohio. Join me as I’m in conversation with friend and fellow mystery writer Con Lehane, launching his new book, The Red Scare Murders, a private eye novel set in 1950 New York City.
Tuesday, March 3, publication of the paperback edition of The Mailman.
Sunday, March 8, 1 p.m., book signing at the Book Loft, Columbus, Ohio,
Tuesday, March 24, 2026, launch of The Delivery, Book Two in the Mercury Carter series, at Gramercy Books, and I’m excited to reveal that I’ll be in conversation with Edgar Award-winning crime writer Natalie Richards. FYI, it’s a ticketed event, and registration is now open!
Tuesday, March 31, 2026, noon to 1 p.m., Ohio County Public Library, Lunch with Books program, Wheeling, West Virginia.
Thursday, April 16, 2026, 6:30-8 p.m., New Albany Branch of the Columbus Public Library, discussion of The Delivery.
Monday, June 2, 2026, 6-7:30 p.m., Storyline Bookshop, Upper Arlington, Ohio. Launch of Rescue Me, the new Andy Hayes private eye novella.
Tuesday, June 9, 2026, 6:30 p.m., Gathering Volumes bookstore book club discussion of The Delivery, Perrysburg, Ohio (full details TBA, and Rescue Me will also be available for purchase).
Wednesday, June 10, 2026, 6-7:30 p.m., Thurber House picnic series, discussion of Rescue Me and The Delivery, and how I balance two series, Columbus, Ohio (full details TBA).
RECOMMENDED READS
Several faithful newsletter readers recommended books this month, including:
_ Sheila Gardner: The Silver State, a Nevada-set legal thriller by Gabriel Urza.
_ Kathy Reed: Bad Indians Book Club: Reading at the Edge of A Thousand Worlds, an examination of works by marginalized writers, by Patty Krawec.
_ Karen Roettger: Born A Crime, the memoir of comedian Trevor Noah (I, too, loved this book), and The Measure, a novel by Nikki Erlick in which everyone in the world must decide whether to learn exactly how long they have to live.
_ Jane Turzillo: Too Old For This, a mystery featuring an elderly, retired female serial killer forced to consider her murderous ways again, by Samantha Dowling.
And here are a couple of titles I'm happy to recommend.
_ The Proving Ground, by Michael Connelly. How does he do it? The second novel by Connelly in the same year after last spring’s excellent Nightshade, which introduced a new series set on Catalina Island. The Proving Ground, a new “Lincoln Lawyer” book, finds attorney Mickey Haller suing an AI company after its chat bot allegedly told a teenage boy to kill his ex-girlfriend. Absolutely gripping and, frankly, terrifying because of its implications about AI’s impact on society.
_ The Evening Shades, by Lee Martin. The long-awaited sequel to Martin’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize-finalist novel, The Bright Forever, explores what happened to Henry Dees after he left the small Indiana community of Tower Hill under a cloud of suspicion. This lyrical novel is almost the perfect sequel: its events unfold naturally from the first book, while providing new insights and surprises.
What's the best book you've read recently?
Happy reading and writing!
Andrew
THE LAST WORD
(from Ellis Rosen)
