This is our final issue of 2023. We have original stories from Robert Jeschonek, John M. Floyd, Anne Swardson, and Phyllis Ann Karr, plus a recent tale by Anna Tambour. Classic reprints from Keith Laumer, Piers Anthony, Raymond F. Jones, and Hal Meredith. Plus, of course, a solve-it-yourself puzzler. Here’s the complete lineup— Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “The Luckiest Man in the World” by Robert Jeschonek [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “The Garage Sale Mystery” Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “A Christmas Movie” by John M. Floyd [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “The Spice of Death,” by Anne Swardson [short story] “The Ancient Monk,” by Hal Meredith [short story, Sexton Blake series] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “The Witch of La Jícara” by Phyllis Ann Karr [short story] “The Tin and the Damask Rose,” by Anna Tambour [short story] “The Walls,” by Keith Laumer [short story] “Quinquepedalian,” by Piers Anthony [short story] “Stay Off The Moon!” by Raymond F. Jones [short story]

Black Cat Weekly #101 presents 10 great tales of mystery. fantasy, and science fiction -- a pair of novels, a novella, and 7 short stories. Hours of great reading await! Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Lost Boy” by Neil S. Plakcy [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “The Case of the Disappearing Document” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “River Secret” by Anne Swardson [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “A Network of Crime,” by Nicholas Carter [novella] Anybody’s Pearls, by Hulbert Footner [short story collection] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “Knocker Baby,” by Phyllis Ann Karr [short story, Bart Maverel series] “Gentlemen: Please Note,” by Randall Garrett [short story] “Killer Cat,” by Joseph Payne Brennan [short story] “Pen Pal,” by Stephen Marlowe [short story] The Hidden Kingdom, by Francis Beeding

10 Tales of Unlikely Partners The Odd Couple, Remington Steele, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Kirk and Spock, any couple in Friends or The Big Bang Theory or... Thrown together by chance, assignment, or circumstance. Driven apart by skills, personality, or they just don’t trust each other. Until their lives are on the line and their only options are to cooperate—or die. Partnerships from the too perfect couple to the new met stranger. And when your partner isn’t another person?

A spice vendor at a Paris market gets an unusual request for caraway seeds from a down on her luck elderly Romanian who claims to be a princess. When an intimidating pursuer appears, the vendor wonders if her fanciful claims could be true. Compelled to learn more when she desperately pleads for his help, he risks his new life in France to solve the mystery of who she really is and why dangerous men would pursue a powerless old woman.

Women who put it all on the line when the shit hits the fan. Military, family, or thrown together by chance doesn’t matter. They join, they cooperate, and, when they run out of options, they fight. Tales from feudal Japan to modern day Angola. A slink through the Parisien woods and a strut along the Seattle streets. A Babylon that we never knew to a war-torn hell we should all fear. A baker’s dozen of stories about women owning their place in the world.

Soon after its founding in 2011, Noir Nation: International Crime Fiction became the globally recognized home of international crime fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. With this issue, it also becomes home to a new literary form, the blot, which takes the form of police blotter entries. Noir Nation's content is often dark, sometimes creepy, sometimes humorous but always at the service of the literary imagination that explores the darker regions of human experience--where weak writing is the only crime. This issue includes Fiction by Erika Nichols-Frazer, Anne Swardson, Christopher Locke, BV Lawson, Ron David, JJ Toner, and John Helden; Police Blotter (Blots) by Ava Black, Frauke Schuster, and David R. Stafford; Nonfiction by J.B. Stevens, Michael A. Gonzales, and James Newman; and Poetry by Rosanne Limoncelli, Laura Hoffman Kelly, George Perreault, Todd Hearon, Steve Butler, Erik Dionne, and Carl Watson. Publisher, Eddie Vega; Managing Editor, Steve Heiden; Editors, Wendy A. Reynolds and Rowena Galavitz; Editor-at-Large, Alan Ward Thomas; Founding Editor, Cort McMeel (1971-2013).