Short Stories
“The Last Case of Inspector Fourie”
The head of a diamond sorting plant in Johannesburg is murdered with a blunt object. Diamonds are missing and there is no trace of the murder weapon. Yet both—and the murderer—must still be at the facility; it was locked down after the the murder was discovered and no one could have got past the airtight security.
Inspector Johan Fourie is bitter about being forced to retire from the South African Police, ostensibly because of a bullet wound, but really, he believes, to make way for new black officers. But a murderer is a murderer and a thief is a thief. He has no intention of failing to solve his last case or of letting the culprit go unpunished.
“The Last Case of Inspector Fourie” appeared in The Strand Magazine in 2014.
“The Empty Chair,” by Graham Greene and…
“The Empty Chair” is a recently discovered unfinished novella by Graham Greene. Set in an English country house where a group of guests are spending a few days with Lady Alice Perriham, one morning a guest does not appear for breakfast and is discovered murdered. At first it seems straightforward, but the case becomes more and more complicated. Inspector Maybury—an intriguing stamp-collecting detective—follows the trail. But it’s the aging actor—Sir John Collis—who unravels the mystery.
The Strand Magazine published the novella and ran a competition for the best ending to the story. Our offering was chosen and appeared in the Spring 2011 edition (Issue #33).
“The Haunting”
“The Haunting” is a short story about a witchdoctor in South Africa who gets mixed up in a murder. And finds a strange way of solving it.
It appeared in the June-Sept. 2010 issue of The Strand Magazine.
If you would like to read the story, click on the title above to download a PDF.