“The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74”
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Winner, Derringer Award for Best Novelette
Finalist, Agatha Award for Best Short Story
Finalist, Anthony Award for Best Short Story
Finalist, Macavity Award for Best Short Story
Read the story here for free for a limited time.
“The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74” marks the first time I’ve appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine—and it’s a story that’s been a long time coming, with the first draft of it having been written more than 25 years ago.
The story is set in a small North Carolina town during a pivotal year both in the country’s history (Watergate topping those headlines) and in the life of the narrator, 10-year-old Cooper Hobbes. When Cooper and his friends discover a fresh animal bone in the yard, he decides it’s a mystery to be solved—but the stakes are higher than any of them might have anticipated, and in the process Cooper also finds himself struggling with other, deeper mysteries: questions about how to deal with the new girl in the neighborhood and then struggles to determine his own place in this world, both who he is and who he wants to be.
This issue also includes stories by writers including Joseph D’Agnese, Sharon Hunt, Steve Hockensmith, Mark Thielman, James Tipton, and more.
Read the story here for free for a limited time, courtesy of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the story. You can also download the story here to read offline.
Book categories: Magazines