The first Plan B collection showcases a wide variety of plans gone sideways — private eyes getting stuck on cases they really don’t want to take, petty criminals getting in over their heads, law enforcement professionals on the wrong side of the bars, and upstanding citizens finding themselves to be not so law-abiding after all. These stories are as varied as they are excellent — there are light-hearted tales to make you smile, literary pieces that challenge the definition of crime writing, and realistic portraits of difficult and disturbing decisions. Whatever your tastes, I’m sure you’ll find something to enjoy here and maybe something to surprise you.

Crime knows no boundaries, and no one culture or time period has a monopoly on plans gone wrong. In this second collection of stories from Plan B Magazine, we find tales from around the world and across the span of time. These stories also travel the breadth of human experience, from the innocence of a child to the mind of a bigoted murderer. Some stories will make you smile while others will make you cringe, but all will take you on a journey into the darkness of the human spirit. And what a ride it will be. Table of Contents: "Shadows" by E. J. Togneri "Pongo's Lucky Day" by Craig Faustus Buck "Flames" by Robert Guffey "Faster Than a Speeding Bullet" by Sally Carpenter "Government Assistance" by M. A. B. Lee "Ninety Miles, A Million Miles" by Gary Cahill "Inured" by Stephen D. Rogers "Embers" by Michael Haynes "Grave Designs" by Mike O’Reilly "Man On The Run" by Laird Long "A Piece Of String" by Ahmed A. Khan "Mockingbird Rail Yard Blues" by Jim Downer "The Ring" by Aislinn Batstone

Desperation is the same in any language. Madness respects no borders. Greed and revenge transcend cultural differences. In this third collection of stories from Plan B Magazine, we find tales from all the corners of the crime world. From Cold War espionage to small town stick-ups, high-powered diplomacy to the opportunism of poverty, these are stories of the darkness of the human heart. And once in a while, how the light of our common humanity can transcend that darkness. Table of Contents: "Sirens" by Gary Cahill "House Cleaning" by Ian Creasey "Murderous Lies" by Peter DiChellis "Doing God's Work" by Wayne Scheer "Um Peixe Grande" by Patti Abbott "Loveable Alan Atcliffe" by S.R. Mastrantone "Slice" by Tom Barlow "How Green Was My Valet" by John H. Dromey "The Least Of These" by BV Lawson "Miscellany" by Eryk Pruitt "Stars & Stripes" by Jed Power "Alten Kameraden" by Ed Ahern "The Farm" by Kevin R. Doyle

At the cutting edge of crime fiction, Mystery Weekly Magazine presents original short stories by the world's best-known and emerging mystery writers. The stories we feature in our monthly issues span every imaginable subgenre, including cozy, police procedural, noir, whodunit, supernatural, hardboiled, humor, and historical mysteries. Evocative writing and a compelling story are the only certainty. Get ready to be surprised, challenged, and entertained--whether you enjoy the style of the Golden Age of mystery (e.g., Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle), the glorious pulp digests of the early twentieth century (e.g., Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler), or contemporary masters of mystery. In our feature story, Gary Cahill's "... On A Two-Way Street ...," a New York City bagman runs afoul of gunmen on a Cape Cod beach and into a femme who is fatale in just the right measure. While entertaining at a child's birthday party, a young woman becomes embroiled in the secrets of suburbia in "Magic Cat And The Girl In The Shadows" by Jack Bates. In Justin Rempel's "My Favourite Fungus," we are presented with a puzzle to unravel. Small towns are simple places. Their streets run in grid-like patterns. So why can he not find her? "I Gave Them The Finger" by Chad Lutzke takes us on a wild goose chase when a man finds a finger in his front yard and investigates the neighborhood to find the owner. "A Letter For The Bayou" by Craig A. Strickland gives us a poignant tale of an old detective hoping to spend his retirement with poetry and a quiet life. But when the peace of the Southern bayou in his backyard is violently shattered, suddenly he finds himself back on duty.