The Macbeth Murder Mystery by James Thurber

The high concept: an avid reader of murder mysteries reads Macbeth, and tries to figure out who really killed King Continue reading →

The Horror of the Heights by Arthur Conan Doyle

I love this. I remember exactly when I first read this, because I ran downstairs to my pilot housemate and Continue reading →

The Bottle: A Provincial Tale by Charlotte Hobson

 “Overnight, and against all precepts of logic, Mayor Vyipivkin had turned into a vodka bottle – and an empty one Continue reading →

The Case of the Skinflint’s Specters by Brian M. Thomsen

It’s ‘A Christmas Carol’. It even opens with the first few lines verbatim, almost: “Old Marley was as dead as Continue reading →

All But Empty by Graham Greene

The setting is what sells this story. It takes place in a small run-down cinema that shows nothing but silent Continue reading →

Monkey Suit by Alastair Reynolds

Reynolds loves things on a large scale. Take the opening paragraph: “A lighthugger is a four kilometre spike of armour Continue reading →

The Hated by Frederik Pohl

Early on an astronaut in a bar is asked: “What’s it like to fly to Mars on a rocket?” His Continue reading →

What This Story Needs is a Giant Gorilla by Darrell Schweitzer

What makes a story an enduring classic? Schweitzer approaches this from the other direction by looking at one that is Continue reading →