Steve’s Stories

Steve has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine more than 30 times. And by “appeared in” we don’t mean they used his picture in an ad for a miracle weight-loss pill. (That was Woman’s World, and the ad only ran twice.) In fact, over the last 20 years, Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen have been nice enough to publish so many of Steve’s short stories he could turn around and make collections out of ’em.

Blarney: 12 Tales of Lies, Crime & Mystery

It’s the ninth commandment: Thou shalt not lie. But if you’ve already covered the big sins on the list — coveting, stealing, killing — why balk at a fib...especially when it might save your neck? That’s why you'll find lies of all kinds in this new collection of crime stories. Trying to cut through them to the truth are cops, private eyes, spies, criminals and ordinary people in way over their heads. In the Derringer Award-winning “Erie’s Last Day,” a retiring detective races against the clock to solve one final case before he has to turn in his badge. In the Shamus Award finalist “Tricks,” a reluctant sleuth finds himself dragged into the search for a kidnapped monkey, while in the Shamus-, Barry- and Anthony-nominated “The Big Road,” he teams up with a trucker to find a highjacked shipment of TVs. Other stories feature a commie gumshoe, treacherous cattle rustlers and the world’s most embittered crime writer (who’s not Steve).

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Naughty: Nine Tales of Christmas Crime

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” the old song tells us. But that doesn’t mean the people celebrating it are always so nice. Criminals get the Christmas spirit, too! In this collection of hilarious short stories, you’ll see what the thieves, killers, psychos and scumbags are up to come the yuletide...and it’s not caroling door to door. Well, not unless they’re casing the neighborhood for a break-in, as a rag-tag gang does in the title story. You’ll also meet a mall elf menaced by a very, very bad Santa (in “I Killed Santa Claus,”) a London police inspector hunting for the man who murdered Ebenezer Scrooge (in “Humbug”), a trucker out to save his shipment of Cabbage Patch Dolls from bumbling hijackers (in “Special Delivery”) and many more characters you’ll never forget.

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If you don’t feel like paying for Steve’s stories, you’re in luck. It turns out the Internet’s good for more than selling books, spreading lies and looking for pictures of whatever Kardashian catches your fancy. There are also free stories! (And some really cheap ones, too!)

Click here to listen to Steve’s story “My Christmas Story” on the Ellery Queen podcast.
Click here to listen to Steve’s story “Dear Dr. Watson” on the Ellery Queen podcast.
Click here to listen to Steve’s story “Fruitcake” on the Ellery Queen podcast.
Click here to listen to Steve’s story “Special Delivery” on the Ellery Queen podcast.
Click here to listen to Steve’s story “The MacGuffin Theft Case” on the Alfred Hitchcock podcast.
Click here to read Steve’s story “The Herd” in Lightspeed Magazine.
Click here to buy Steve’s story “Frank” (originally published in Alfred Hitchcock) for just 99 cents.
Click here to buy Steve’s story “The Last Noel” (originally published in Alfred Hitchcock) for just 99 cents.
Click here if you’re one of the special people who found the hidden link to the latest “Holmes on the Range” short story.