I was equal parts thrilled and intimidated when Andrew McAleer invited me to contribute a story to an anthology he was co-editing with Gay Toltl Kinman—a collection being officially released today, Monday, December 5, by Down & Out Books.
The thrilled part first. Edgar and Shamus Go Golden: Twelve Tales of Murder, Mystery, and Master Detection From the Golden Age of Mystery and Beyond is a milestone book—a milestone tied to its genesis: the discovery of an unpublished manuscript with a personal connection to one of the co-editors. John McAleer, Andrew’s father, was a distinguished professor at Boston College for more than 50 years and an award-winning writer too, winner of the 1978 Edgar Award in the Best Critical/Biographical category for his book Rex Stout: A Biography. Andrew’s brother, Paul, recently discovered the handwritten manuscript of a story his father had written in 1937: the Golden Age-era mystery “The Case of the Illustrious Banker.” More than eight decades later, that story is finally being published as the centerpiece of the new anthology, and Andy and Gay invited eleven other authors—all fellow Edgar Award winners or winners of the Shamus Award—to contribute their own Golden Age detective stories to help celebrate the occasion.
Thrilled and honored to be part of that cadre? Of course!
And intimidated? Well… I’ve never written a Golden Age-styled mystery before.
My story “The Invisible Band” is more Golden Age-inspired, as it turns out. Set in the modern day, the story takes place at a hotel’s murder mystery weekend, with participants stepping into the characters of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, Father Brown, Philo Vance, Charlie Chan, and more. But when a real-life theft threatens to derail the weekend’s main game, which of the detectives will step to the fore to solve the crime? And which of them might be unmasked as the thief themself?
Edgar and Shamus Go Golden features ten other stories by Doug Allyn, Lori Armstrong, O’Neil De Noux, Brendan DuBois, Martin Edwards, John Floyd, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Kristen Lepionka, Lia Matera, and P.J. Parrish—great company to be alongside!
You can find links to all the major booksellers from the anthology’s page at publisher Down & Out Books. Enjoy!