Current Issue Highlights
Life and Death Bets
by Linda Landrigan
To commit a crime is to roll the dice: Will it go as planned or will chance intervene? Can you trust your partners or will you be betrayed? The most carefully plotted murder can unravel faster than a spontaneous crime of passion. This issue is full of stories about characters who are hoping for the favor of Lady Luck, whether ferreting out corporate espionage or raiding a bathroom vanity for unused meds, weighing the odds that they will be a serial killer’s next victim or transporting a dangerous armed robber to a hospital. The turn of a card, the flip of a coin—any situation or choice subject to sudden reversal or surprise can propel a good mystery plot.
We’ve doubled down on our bet that you’ll find these stories worthwhile
FICTION
by David Hagerty
“Ice, ice, ice,” people shouted at the mayor of New York each time he appeared in public. The price had doubled over a year’s time, and voters were angry. They relied on ice to keep their food fresh in summer and to cool their fevers in winter. And beer. The ice kept the beer chilled and flavorful even when temperatures outside rose. In a generation, New Yorkers had come to expect a steady flow of ice from the rivers and lakes upstate. READ MORE
by Will Ferguson
In murmuring voices, they discuss my murder. And every time they do, Maria comes closer and closer to capitulating. “I can’t,” she whispers. I can hear the swallowed sob in her voice. I can’t. “You must,” they whisper back. You must. READ MORE
DEPARTMENTS
Booked & Printed
by Laurel Flores Fantauzzo
In any nation, systems of hierarchies and norms endure, exerting expectations upon its citizens. The true test of a country’s health is how those individuals at the bottom of any given hierarchy experience daily life. Do nationwide structures allow for an existence with everyday dignity for those lowermost residents? Or does community cruelty crush them? And what of those who are not, in fact, the most stepped-upon in society, but whose aggrieved rage makes them imagine themselves so? This issue, Booked & Printed examines books whose characters commit crimes in the contexts of their corrosive environments, some sins perhaps more justifiable than others. READ MORE
We give a prize of $25 to the person who invents the best mystery story (in 250 words or less, and be sure to include a crime) based on the photograph provided in each issue. The story will be printed in a future issue. READ THIS ISSUE’S WINNING STORY
Scrambled Clue
by Mark Lagasse
Unscramble the letters of each numbered entry to spell the name of a Peter Diamond book. MOST RECENT PUZZLE
Look for our July/August 2026 issue on sale at newsstands on June 8, 2026. Or subscribe to AHMM in print or in a wide variety of digital formats.