The Heirs of Anthony Boucher Marvin Lachman

Mystery Fandom in Cyberspace
great rapidity. For example, only five of fourteen sites listed in the 1998 Bouchercon
program were still in operation in 2004.
The range of fan websites is wide. The Gumshoe Site by Japan’s Jiro Kimura, established
in January 1996, is one of the best for news. He is especially good regarding
information on deaths of writers, awards, and publication of short story collections.
He also publishes pictures he takes at Bouchercon.
With the short story market having shrunk to a handful of magazines, the web has
partly filled the gap, at least in the hardboiled area. An example is Russel D. McLean’s
Crime Scene, which started as a bookselling site but evolved into an “intermittent
internet journal,” including short stories. Kevin Burton Smith’s Thrilling Detective
website has been active since 1998. It includes short stories (authors are paid $7.50
per story), reviews, and some essays that would not have been out of place in TAD,
for example Marcia Kiser’s “Nero Wolfe: A Social Commentary on the US.”
The Short Mystery Fiction Society is an e-group like DorothyL, though it is hosted
by Yahoo.com, rather than a university. About 850 people belong. They give the Derringer
Awards annually for excellence in short mystery fiction. Bob Tinsley of Colorado
Springs started The ShortOfIt.blogspot.com in late 2004. Tinsley, who reviews
short stories on his site, predicts that the future of the mystery short story rests in
“e-zines,” and there are at least a half-dozen such magazines publishing crime fiction—mostly
hardboiled—that fans of this new form of magazine consider exceptional.
Among these is Plots with Guns, which, despite paying little, attracted “name”
writers such as Laura Lippman and Steve Hamilton to contribute to a special issue.
Jeff Cohen’s e-zine Mystery Morgue, in addition to reviews, articles, and interviews,
features “Murder by Committee,” an ongoing serial mystery written by various
writers, including Julia Spencer-Fleming, Rhys Bowen, and Robin Burcell. All
were asked to write it in the style of the mystery writers who had inspired them.
If anything, there is greater enthusiasm for the short story online than there is for
it in conventional print media. One of the leading advocates is Sarah Weinman who
edits fiction for the e-zine Shots.
Bonny Brown of Edmonds, Washington, is webmaster of Stop, You’re Killing Me,
which she describes as “A Site to Die for… If You Love Mystery Books.” There is information
on new books and pages on hundreds of authors, including lists (generally
not complete) of their books. Tangled Web, the UK’s leading website, uses similar
language, calling itself “A Web Site to Die For.” It provides news, reviews, author
profiles, lengthy interviews, often by Bob Cornwell, and essays. In a recent issue,
Natasha Cooper had an essay on Josephine Tey. Many of these sites have links to or
ads for on-line bookseller Amazon.com, providing a source of income for sites that
are accessible without charge.
Though most of the interest in current magazines and websites is in current mysteries,
there are sites for fans of older detective stories. Golden Age Detection, run
by Jon Jermey of Australia, has had more than a thousand electronic “issues.” Its
members are often polled, with questions such as what were the best and worst “last
bows,” allowing members to vote on the best and worst final novels of writers. Another
poll concerned the best short stories of all time. Members frequently discuss
forgotten writers such as Anthony Wynne. All is not sweetness and light, and one
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