The Mystery Megapack

COPYRIGHT INFO
    The Mystery Megapack is
    copyright © 2011 by Wildside Press LLC.
    www.wildsidebooks.com
    Cover art © AlienCat / Fotolia.
    * * * *
    “A Senior Discount on Death” is copyright © 2006 by Noreen Wald. It originally appeared in Chesapeake Crimes II . Reprinted with the author’s permission.
    “Murder on the Orient Express” is copyright © 1995 by Art Taylor. It was originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , December 1995 . Reprinted with the author’s permission.
    “The Stolen Venus,” is copyright © 2008 by Darrell Schweitzer. It was originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, October 2008. Reprinted with the author’s permission.
    “Rear View Murder” is copyright © 2006 by Carla Coupe. It originally appeared in Chesapeake Crimes II . Reprinted with the author’s permission.
    “Thubway Tham’s Inthult,” by Johnston McCulley, originally appeared in Detective Story Magazine , October 21, 1919.
    “The Ides of March,” by E.W. Hornung, originally appeared in The Amateur Cracksman (1905).
    “Pinprick” is copyright © 2009 by Skadi Beorg. It was originally published in the short story collection Always After Thieves Watch. Reprinted with the author’s permission.
    “The Red Herring,” by William Hope Hodgson, originally appeared in Captain Gault (1917).
    “Dragon Bones” is copyright © 2003 by Jacqueline Seewald. It was originally published by Orchard Press Mysteries in September 2003. Reprinted with the author’s permission.
    “The Golden Slipper,” by Anna Katherine Green, originally appeared in The Golden Slipper and Other Problems for Violet Strange (1915).
    “Kali,” by Eric Taylor, originally appeared in All-Star Detective , November 1929.
    “Driven to Distraction” is copyright © 2006 by Marcia Talley. It originally appeared in Chesapeake Crimes II . Reprinted with the author’s permission.
    “The Blue Cross,” by G.K. Chesterton, originally appeared in The Innocence of Father Brown (1911).
    “The Worst Noel” ic copyright © 2009 by Barb Goffman. It originally appeared in The Gift of Murder .
    “Mr. Clackworthy’s Pot of Gold,” by Christopher B. Booth, originally appeared in Detective Story Magazine (1920).
    “The Monkey God,” by Seabury Quinn, originally appeared in Real Detective Tales , April-May, 1927.
    “Wedding Knife” is copyright © 2004 by Elaine Viets. It was originally published in Chesapeake Crimes .
    “The Mad Detective,” by John D. Swain, originally appeared in Detective Story Magazine , May 8, 1926.
    “The Adventure of the Diamond Necklace,” by G.F. Forrest, originally appeared in Misfits: A Book of Parodies (1905).
    “Security Blanket” is copyright © 2004 by Toni L.P. Kelner. It was was originally published in Riptide: Crime Stories by New England Writers .
    “A Crook Without Honor,” by Johnston McCulley, originally appeared in Detective Story Magazine (1921).
    “The Daughter of Huang Chow,” by Sax Rohmer originally appeared in Tales of Chinatown (1922).
    “Anchors Away,” is copyright © 2010 by C. Ellett Logan. It riginally appeared in Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin’ . Reprinted with the author’s permission.
    “Ways of Darkness,” by E.S. Pladwell, originally appeared in All-Story Weekly , October 25, 1919.
    “Thubway Tham’s Inthane Moment,” by Johnston McCulley, originally appeared in Detective Story Magazine , Nov. 19. 1918.

A SENIOR DISCOUNT ON DEATH, by Nora Charles
    Well, she’d earned every wrinkle, Kate Kennedy decided, applying SPF-40 sunblock to her cheeks a half century too late. The damage done decades ago, during those carefree summers at Rockaway, another beach on the Atlantic Ocean, back when everyone believed direct exposure to morning sunshine was good for all God’s creatures.
    Swiping her greasy fingers with a Wipe & Dry—too fastidious even by her own standards—Kate returned to the Sun-Sentinel’s article about a Cuban drowning while trying to reach Florida. Such a handsome young man. So sad.
    “Do you think I’ll ever get my gusto back?” Marlene Friedman, in a plus size scarlet tankini, shifted her chair to catch the sun’s rays on her already tanned-to-toast shoulders. “My lust for life has been slipping away for months—you must have noticed—now it’s gone with the wind.”
    Kate smiled, noting Marlene had used two movie titles to describe her loss. They’d spent most of their childhood Saturdays at double