Short Stories

I’m not a prolific writer of short stories, but a couple of years ago, my then publicist asked me if I had a long short story suitable for the Christmas edition of The Radio Times. There was one that I’d been meaning to write, so I sat down and wrote it in four or five days. It was called “The Window”. Of course, The Radio Times didn’t want it and when I pressed my publicist on the matter, she admitted that they’d actually asked if John Le Carre would write a Christmas story for them! Er, no, but I can offer you something by a virtual unknown – nice try.

Not to worry. I’d really enjoyed writing it, and I sent it to my US agent who sold it to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. It was published in their Christmas edition, January 2004. Mystery Scene magazine reviewed the story after it was published and was generous enough to describe it as “bordering on the magnificent”.

You can read it here, but it’s quite long (about thirty pages) so there’s also a PDF version.

I’ve since written two more stories for Ellery Queen, “The Concept” for the August 2005 edition and “Hal Checks Out” appearing sometime thereafter. And I’ve been asked to contribute to two collections which will appear in 2006. “The Death of Jeffers” will appear in “Dublin Noir”, edited by Ken Bruen and featuring some friends of mine. And “Retrospective” will appear in the “Greatest Hits” anthology, edited by Robert Randisi and featuring the esteemed company of Lee Child, Lawrence Block and Jeffery Deaver, among others. For those who are interested, “Retrospective” also features an appearance by Dan Borowski, last seen in “For the Dogs”.

That’s it on the short story front – give me ten years and I might have enough for a collection.