Reading Room: Short stories offer full satisfaction
Short stories are a dying art.
Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, I consumed many pulp and mystery short stories, satisfying my literary taste and inner bookworm.
Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Ed McBain, Ross Macdonald, Raymond Carver, and Donald E. Westlake were a few of my must-read authors. They still are, in fact, my go-to writers when I need a break from the usual novel-length reads.
Nonetheless, they’re available and can be equally enjoyed by various age groups.
Two popular, long-running short story publications, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, are in print and accessible today as e-books or bound paperbacks, including a plentiful amount of crime, mystery, pulp, and suspense short fiction stories to sharpen and pique the armchair detective’s little grey cells. In the July/August 2024 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, a slew of marvelous, creative, and crafty tales is woven into page-turning suspense reads such as Steven Sheil’s title story, “The Art of Cruel Embroidery,” which is set in a tailoring shop and boutique business.
Marcelle Dube’s deftly handled story, “Chuck Berry is Missing,” is one of the collection’s highlights, with its wintery, atmospheric backdrop and well-paced investigation. If you’re looking for a solid missing person mystery and summer crime, I urge you to pick up or download a copy of the latest Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
As for physical books and the authors writing and churning out stories in the short fiction field, some celebrated authors, such as Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates, have recently released a mishmash of short stories.
King is widely read and mainly known for his horror tales. Until recently, the master of macabre took a break from writing about bloodthirsty clowns, gigantic spiders, rabid dogs, vampires, and vengeful cars for more grounded, human-interest stories like “Holly” and “Billy Summers.”
For years, King’s passionate fan base has been clamoring for spookier stories and the supernatural monsters and sinister entities that live in the dark and go bump in the night. King must have been listening because this past May, a dozen dark stories surfaced in a 500-page tome called “You Like it Darker,” a nostalgically and stylized compilation of evocative old-school horror that King fans have been waiting for.
King returns with a sequel to “Cujo,” a short story titled “Rattlesnakes.” King reminds us that the past steers the future. In the story, a widower travels to Florida to receive an inheritance with strings attached.
“Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dreams” is my favorite of the bunch. A man dreams of finding a dead body and then goes searching for it, only to land himself in the line of fire when he becomes the main suspect in the man’s death. It is the longest story in the batch, clocking in at 151 pages, but the stellar storytelling seizes you and doesn’t let go.
In 2023, prolific literary juggernaut Joyce Carol Oates published new arresting and provocative stories in “Zero-Sum.” The compendium is an example of art imitating life—though it might be the other way around—a brilliant and innovative example of somebody holding a mirror up to our current times, a frightening glance at our country’s broken political and social landscape.
Oates likes to experiment with syntax, content, and language. Many of the stories in the book center on women’s rights, feminism, and the vulnerable framework of living as a woman in a violent man’s world.
“Mr. Stickum” includes violence against women, a familiar theme in Oate’s writing. Still, the physical, emotional, and mental fatigue it takes on the women in the story doesn’t outwit their hunger for control and retribution.
In the most comprehensive and powerfully wrought story, “The Suicide,” a highly admired and cutting-edge writer experiments with drafts of his own suicide.
C.J. Tudor (“The Chalk Man” and “The Gathering”) combines her strength for storytelling and world-building in a slim but fierce collection of horror stories titled “A Sliver of Darkness.”
Using engaging dialogue and mind-bending narratives, Tudor features chilling cases of killer butterflies, Doomsday scenarios, and mistaken identity.
“Final Course” concentrates on a group of friends who gather for a dinner party as the country descends into darkness. Grave consequences abound as Tudor feeds her readers with excellent pacing and mood and amps up the creep factor to unnerving levels of uncertainty.
“Gloria” is an eerie tale of lust, as a strange young woman endears herself to a cold-hearted killer.
Short fiction is on the menu—a variety of pulp, mystery, and suspense tales for the ravenous reader. This month and throughout the year, support authors who write short stories. Check out the titles from this column, or select your own.
Whatever you choose, happy reading.
— Thomas Grant Bruso is a Plattsburgh resident who writes fiction and has been an avid reader of genre fiction since he was a kid. Readers and writers are invited to connect and discuss books and writing at www.facebook.com/thomasgrantbruso