Hey! Long time no…anything. But that changes today. You can check a new short story of mine, called “The Vulnerable Rind,” in the February 2019 issue of Mystery Weekly. The hard-copy issue hits newsstands today, February 1, and digital issues are already available.

"The Vulnerable Rind" is set in Rome, Italy. A young Italian carabinieri officer launches an unofficial investigation into a series of trivial break-ins at a small cheesemonger's shop in Rome, with troubling results. If you know my work, the cop in question is none other than Matteo Scarpone, who appeared in my novel, The Marshal of the Borgo and a short story entitled “Bloody Signorina,” which was a Derringer Award finalist way back in 2013. It’s nice to see that character in print again.

Mystery Weekly is a lovely magazine published out of Canada. You can buy digital issues via the Kindle Newsstand, and print copies via Amazon. You can also snag digital copies via Google Play, the App Store, or direct from their website here. If you want to check out my story, make sure you are downloading the February issue shown here.

Submissions stats: I finished this story sometime in September 2017, but it never found a home until Mystery Weekly bought it in December 2018. They took only 6 days to say yes, and the story is appearing about one month from acceptance. Payment was $60.

Yes, I will someday release an e-book version of of the story, which I’ll offer free to readers on my list. If you’d rather wait for the free copy, please join my e-newsletter.