Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 57, No. 7 & 8, July/August 2012

Editor’s Note: Detection on the Double by Linda Landrigan

The July/August summer double issue is always a treat to assemble because it offers twice the usual space. We have a top-notch lineup this time with, appropriately for the season, a number of stories involving travel. A short getaway to Saratoga for Madame Selina and her growing assistant “Nip” fails to get them away from the taint of murder in “The Best Thing for the Liver” by Janice Law. John C. Boland’s intelligence agent Charles Marley travels to Casablanca to deal with the death of an ex-CIA agent in the multi-layered “Marley’s Rescue.” David Edgerley Gates’s “Burning Daylight” takes us to the beautiful environs of the American Southwest, where gangs and meth make for an explosive mix. And poor Dewey, the perpetually terrified bail bond agent, is sent on another dangerous errand by his boss, the mysterious Cletis Johnston, in “Tightening of the Bond” by R. T. Lawton.

Meanwhile, Elaine Menge puts a deadly spin on a summer pastime in “Death on the Range.” Donald Moffitt brings back the Sumerian scribe Nabu-zir, whose discretion and perception make him a trusted amateur detective, only this time he is perhaps too close to the murder in “Assignment in Clay.” John H. Dirckx’s Detective Sergeant Cyrus Auburn puzzles out an unexplained death that looks like murder in “Autumn Chill.” And John C. Corrigan writes about crime from the point of view of one left behind in his poignant “364 Days.”

We are also pleased this issue to welcome John Shepphird, whose “Ghost Negligence” introduces us to Jack O’Shea, a con man turned private eye with a knack for detecting scams.

The summer issue also features this year’s Black Orchid Novella Award winner. The annual BONA contest is conducted in cooperation with The Wolfe Pack and honors original novellas in the classic Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe mold: detectives who rely on mental muscle to unravel complex puzzle mysteries. The program is now in its sixth year, and looking back at previous winners, we are pleased to report that Michael Nethercott, the second BONA winner, has landed a book contract with St. Martin’s Press for a novel featuring the detecting duo from his prize-winning story, Lee Plunkett and his poetic and wise Irish friend Mr. O’Nelligan.

This year’s BONA winner rings some changes on the familiar Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin model, and it offers a special puzzle for AHMM readers, who are advised to carefully consider the winning author’s byline, Jolie McLarren Swann. You may be as surprised as we were.

Linda Landrigan, Editor