“The Invisible Band”

Agatha Award Finalist, Best Short Story

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I’m pleased to have my story “The Invisible Band”—a playful jaunt into a Golden Age murder mystery weekend—alongside the extraordinary writers in this collection, all Edgar and Shamus Award winners taking their turn at tales set in or inspired by the era.

Here’s the info from the publisher:

Edgar & Shamus welcomes mystery connoisseurs to the Golden Age of Mystery and Murder…Have we ever really left? Has the Golden Age ever really slipped over the falls? The puzzle, the who-dun-it, the why-dun-it, the how-dun-it, and the unshakable alibi are as much afoot today as they were when Dr. Watson documented Holmes’s exploits under the glow of gaslight. As if picking up where the early masters of detection left off, Edgar & Shamus features twelve original mystery tales written exclusively by Edgar Allan Poe Award and Shamus Award-winning authors.

Edgar winner Martin Edwards promises a few relaxing days at a quiet and respectable English resort with criminologist Darius Fortune—or does he? Shamus winner John Floyd’s private detective Luke Walker reserves a 1940s seat for you in the New Orleans Quarter—paid for with old money. To save a friend from a murder rap Shamus winner P. J. Parrish’s “Salvage Consultant” Mavis Magritte must untangle an unshakable alibi with a set of risqué bunny ears. Shamus winner Brendan DuBois rebuilds Boston’s historic and famed Scollay Square without pulling a single building permit. It’s anybody’s guess which master detective might solve the big caper in Edgar winner Art Taylor’s “The Invisible Band”—Nero Wolfe, Miss Marple, Charlie Chan, Lord Peter Wimsey, Father Brown, and even Mr. Holmes are among the all-star sleuths assembled to solve the baffling mystery. In post WWII Havana, “vices are annuities” for Shamus winner Carolina Garcia-Aguilera’s veteran P.I. Sophie Stevenson. Thanks to Tennessee Williams, Shamus winner O’Neil De Noux’s private dick Lucien Caye is up to his hip-pocket in extortion. Edgar winner Doug Allyn’s major crimes detective and WWII combat veteran Dolph LaCrosse returns home only to be called the “new guy” by fellow cops. The war to end all wars may be over, but political skullduggery is still afoot in Shamus winner Lia Matera’s “The Party.” When a “riverboat” gambler washes up dead, Shamus winner Kristen Lepionka’s LA homicide dicks Hewitt and Carmichael are up to their necks in suspects all capable of dealing from the bottom of the deck. It’s trouble with a capital “T” when a Tyrone Power look-a-like saunters into Shamus winner Lori Armstrong’s Marlow Detective Agency.

In Edgar winner John McAleer’s “The Case of the Illustrious Banker,” 1920s London-based detective Henry Von Stray and his able collaborator in the detection of crime Professor John W. Dilpate are up against a “nippy bit of work” in one of their most baffling cases yet. Discovered more than eight decades after first penned, “Illustrious Banker” makes its debut in Edgar & Shamus. McAleer—forty years before he would win the Edgar Award unanimously beating out Christie’s autobiography—created Von Stray and Dilpate in 1937 during the Golden Age of Mystery.

Praise for Edgar & Shamus Go Golden:

“Edgar & Shamus Go Golden is a 24-carat collection of stories by the best in the business, proving that we are in a new Golden Age ourselves, and lucky to be here.” —SJ Rozan, Edgar Award winner and best-selling author of Family Business

“Edgar & Shamus Go Golden is a must-read. Editors Gay Toltl Kinman and Andrew McAleer assembled a collection of stories that fit together like the songs on a Beatles album, with one story setting up the next. Each piece captures the Golden Age glow the editors promised. I highly recommend it.” —Tom MacDonald, Shamus Award nominated author of the Dermot Sparhawk P.I. series

“The Golden Age of Mystery will continue for as long as writers produce stories that challenge us to find solutions alongside the detectives. These stories in Edgar & Shamus Go Golden—some of the best of the best—offer definitive proof.” —Stephen D. Rogers, Derringer Award winning author of Shot to Death

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Book categories: Anthologies