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Short Fiction

2024

A diner server abandoned by her husband faces hard choices to get by.

"Through Thick and Thin"

Ellery Mystery Magazine

Private Eye Andy Hayes uncovers deep secrets as he helps a husband trying to redeem his infidelity

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"The Cumberland Gap"

Black Cat Weekly

PI Andy Hayes looks into a case of catfishing that annoyed the wrong 

kind of people.

"Promised Land"

Black Cat Weekly

A security specialist on moon base Shackleton City stumbles across a deadly plot.

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"They Always Took Longer"

Mystery Magazine, June 2024

Trouble stalks freelance courier

Mercury Carter as he chaperones

a climate change scientist

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"From Another Angle"

Alfred Hitchcock

Mystery Magazine

PI Andy Hayes encounters deadly forces as he investigates a lawmaker's unorthodox behavior

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"Shots To the Heart"

Storiaverse

A Christmas rom-com meet-cute in an usual setting:

a zombie apocalypse

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"A Beauty All Its Own"

Black Cat Weekly 142

A private detective lives up

to her reputation for harshly uncompromising standards

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 "Cold Comfort"

Private Dicks and Disco Balls

A blizzard complicates private eye Jerry Hollister's efforts to find a missing man.

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2023

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"Our Abraham"

Mickey Finn 21st Century Noir: Vol. 4

A police officer tries to love and protect two sisters, with deadly consequences

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"The Legend of Yag-Gryllhoth"

Black Cat Mystery Magazine

October 2023

A rare book theft ring targets a newly discovered H.P. Lovecraft novel.

"No One Goes Out

To Eat Anymore"

Mystery Magazine

June 2023

The delivery of a long-lost locket takes a dark turn.

A Mecury Carter adventure.

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"Wonder Falls"

Mystery Tribune

July/August 2023

A man grappling with his father's abandonment faces hard truths when called to his mother's dying bedside.

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"Supply Chains"

Black Cat Weekly No. 89

May 2023

Unruly customers in a pandemic-era cafe test the owner's limits with their rudeness to a server.​​

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"Habits"

Black Cat Weekly No. 86, April 2023

A hired killer relies on routine, especially when things aren't always as they seem. 

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"Wedding Day"

Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine A detective on a run to the bank the day of his daughter's wedding has to think fast to stay on schedule.​​

"Ignatius Rum-And Cola"

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Jan/Feb 2023In 1980s South Dakota, a Jesuit school superintendent new to a Lakota reservation must navigate powerful forces to solve a murder.​​

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2022

"The Delivery"

Mickey Finn 21st Century Noir: Vol. 3

Freelance courier Mercury Carter encounters unexpected family dysfunction

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"Deliverables"

Tough Magazine

The coronavirus pandemic presents an unexpected opportunity to a man with an unorthodox job

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"Dumbass Is Dumbass"

Black Cat Weekly No. 64

A South Dakota sheriff searching for a missing couple stumbles on a nefarious plot

"Once Upon A Time There Was an Ocean"

Paranoia Blues, October 2022

A Rochester gangster licking his wounds in NYC gains the courage to right a wrong.

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"Digging In"

Black Cat Weekly No. 40, 

A woman finds her resolved tested in unusual ways after the discovery of her husband's infidelity

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"If You Say So"

Mystery and Suspense Magazine

A new arrival threatens

a bully's nursing home 

fiefdom.

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"Building Something Better"

Groovy Gumshoes

  Hired to locate a missing newlywed, Rochester, NY, private eye Jerry Hollister

finds more than he bargained for.

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2021

"Smith & Wesson With A

Side of Chorizo"

December 2021

Tragedy looms as an Ohio prison inmate walks away

from his work camp

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"Finders Keepers"

Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Private Eye Andy Hayes

must save a hospital administrator caught in a

Covid scam

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"Looking for Katie Showalter"

Tough Magazine

Private Eye Andy Hayes

searches for a woman who disappeared

from a music festival

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"The Lake"

This Time For Sure

2021 Bouchercon Anthology

A man reunites with his girlfriend after she left town suspected of murder

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"Back Down to Black"

Mystery Magazine

Freelance courier Mercury Carter meets resistance

trying to a life-saving

vaccination formula.

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2020

"The Mailman"

Mickey Finn Vol. 1

Freelance courier

Mercury Carter escorts a

woman fleeing her abusive husband

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"Going Places"

Columbus Noir

An Ohio governor's bodyguard pledges to always protect his boss--but at what cost?

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"The Whole Story"

Black Cat Mystery Magazine

PI Andy Hayes is hired to dig

up the story behind the story of a man's fatal accident 

conviction.

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"The Most Terrible Thing"
Over My Dead Body magazine
A woman seeks answers to her sister's death on the 1-year anniversary

 
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"What Mr. Leonard Said"

Mystery Magazine

A poetic Texas serial killer knows his state history well

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"The Path I Took"

Mystery Tribune

Danger stalks a young Gaelic scholar in rural Ireland in the 1980s

"Home For The Holidays"

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

An accountant goes missing right before Christmas. An Andy Hayes story

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2019

"You Can't Go Alone"
Mystery Magazine
A detective receives unexpected help while seeking justice for the death of his son from an overdose.

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2018

"Nice Grammar, That Guy"
Mystery Weekly
Providence police investigating a beating death find more than meets the eye

 

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"Love Drive Home"
Tough
A Disney Princess-loving young woman escapes to a new life with help from an unusual friend.

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2017

"A Valentine's Day To Remember"

King River's Life

A young wife offers her husband intriguing Valentine's Day choices.

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"Family Business"

Down & Out Magazine"

An rare art dealer discovers

the downside of keeping secrets.

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"The Murderous Type"

(2017 Al Blanchard Prize winner)

In 1980s Providence, a detective

puzzle over an out-of-towner's

murder

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