In September of 2010, Family Guy had its Season 9 premiere. It was a 50-minute special in which the Griffin family – and a good portion of their town – finds itself trapped in a remote mansion with...

So, I’ve been reading Reito Nikaido’s Terror of Werewolf Castle. For the uninitiated, it is considered to be the longest locked room mystery ever written. Four colossal books (each between 400-500...

The original hand-written draft of Christianna Brand’s iconic Death of Jezebel is found. Its discoverer, the illusive Mr. Black, is eager to auction it off. He invites three potential buyers to hi...

Present Day / Alan I came to this remote cabin in the middle of the Scotland wildlands as a means of escaping my dark past. I never expected to see the kind of sight greeting me now. It was a boo...

I was out on a hiking trip a few days ago. The thirteen of us were spread out across three cabins. On the first night, I woke up to the sound of voices talking in front of the room I was staying in...

A madman claims to create a portal between a small American town and Paris – using the Eiffel Tower. To achieve this, he buys the Eiffel Tower and adorns its top with an upside-down black pyramid....

I’ll admit there’s always something a bit special when digging into self-published fiction, or just fiction by lesser-known authors. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a matter of kinship – unlike me,...

The year is 1997. The winner of the 3rd Mephisto Prize has just been published. Although the book is selling well – far above expectation – the judges of the competition were facing an unprecedente...

I’ve dug too deep. The abyss has stared back. To be completely honest, I’m not sure if I really want to talk about Tomoyuki Shirai’s works. It’s more that I find myself needing to. Not just becaus...

Me standing in a random Seattle bookstore, looking at an all-in-one collection of five Ellery Queen novels, isn’t much of a story-opener. For that matter, this isn’t much of a story, but there’s a ...