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The Beauport Incident appears in the 2022 edition of Best New England Crime Stories: Deadly Nightshade, published by Crime Spell Books.
Excerpt-
"Coming out of Gloucester Harbor, the boat passed Hammond Castle, a gloomy medieval structure made of rough granite. The gory image in the dining room of St. Romanus having his tongue cut out was jarring. What kind of weirdo hangs a gruesome painting where he eats?"
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Valhalla appears in the 2021 edition of Best New England Crime Stories: Bloodroot, published by Crime Spell Books
Excerpt-
“Jay Cauley stands in his briefs in front of the bathroom mirror with a collander on his head. He's wedged a spray of seagull feathers in each handle, and imagines himself jumping off a Viking longship.”
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With Grace appears in the April 2020 issue of the Briar Cliff Review.
Excerpt-
“For two months there were gunshots all around us, car bombs, screaming and crying. For the first time in my life I thought I was going to die.”
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Keeping Abreast appears in the December 2019 issue of Untoward Magazine .
Excerpt-
“Nothing traumatic ever happened to me while growing up, like having my spleen removed or getting my period in white shorts, in a canoe, on a first date (Sheila Troon, no lie).”
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The Manicurist appears in the 2019 anthology, Best New England Crime Stories: Seascape.
Excerpt-
“Every day, the gold-framed doors of Pétale de Rose revolve for the affluent women of Beacon Hill and Back Bay. With their Louis Vuittons swinging on wrists adored with David Yurman, and the scent of Chanel trailing in their wake, they jockey for appointments with Doreen Fabrizio, the hot, new manicurist at the exclusive salon.”
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Dear Ruth appears in the 2018 anthology, Best New England Crime Stories: Landfall.
Excerpt-
"I stood at the kitchen counter knowing I shouldn’t open another one of her letters. Yet, here I was tearing the envelope open, soaking up her every word – in a letter to a dead woman."
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On a Winter's Night appears in Snowbound: Best New England Crime Stories 2017.
Excerpt-
"As she nears The Wharf, Cassie hears the seagulls screeching, and wishes she were one of them so she could scream as freely. She thinks about Francesca’s last moments, if she’d known she was going to die, if she’d tried to fight back. Cassie knows in her gut that Jimmy pushed her down the staircase of their mansion on Seaview Lane. She wipes a rogue tear from her cheek as her grief spills over."
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The Burren appears in Best New England Crime Stories 2016: Windward, and is set in County Clare, Ireland.
Excerpt-
"He tried to imagine thirty more years with her. Thirty more years of putting his fat, boozing wife to bed, waking her from alcohol-induced naps. He’d become her caretaker, nothing more than an enabler of her addiction. After weeks of pleading and coaxing her to get away from their estate in West Kent, she’d finally agreed to come to Ireland, but only for two days. Two days to make a decision that would change his life forever."
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The Elevator appears in Best New England Crime Stories: Stone Cold, and was nominated for a 2014 Derringer Award.
Excerpt –
“I began to summarize my life over the past forty years, not surprised that my total was low in good deeds and high in bad behavior. If what I believed was going to happen, then I’d better atone for my wicked deeds before my demise. It would help me focus until my expiration and might allow me a pass to heaven, or at least limbo for a few years until I could ascend for good behavior. I would have to show remorse to receive absolution. I could do that. I really was sorry for a lot of the things I’d done.”
Purchase your copy from levelbestbooks.com and click on "Buy the Books".
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The award-winning story, The Madness of Ida Mae, appears in the 2014 issue of the Bryant Literary Review (BLR), a literary journal that "...expect readers to be sophisticated, educated, and familiar with the conventions of contemporary literature.”
Read the full story here: The Madness of Ida Mae
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Excerpt – from Scapegoat
“It was Halloween in Salem and as I walked down a brick sidewalk, I heard shouting. Turning, I saw several men dressed in Puritan costumes chasing a woman. She too was dressed in costume but not the conservative dress of the Puritans. Her scarcely covered breasts bounced as she ran and she held her skirt high over her boots. Frightened yet defiant, she yelled over her shoulder, “I am no witch! I am innocent!” I followed the actors toward Old Town Hall where a mock trial was to be held. I learned that the woman being portrayed would be hanged for nothing more than eccentricity and a failure to conform.” |
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Austin Layman’s Crimestalkers Casebook featured
Scapegoat’s The Ghost of Bridget Bishop in poetry form.
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© 2023 Christine Bagley |