Last Gasp

Note: This story was originally published in Black Cat Mystery Magazine in November of 2021.

The legendary Detective Ambrose Broyhill is well aware that he's in the twilight of his career as a homicide investigator. But when the daughter of his old partner catches a deceased person call, he saddles up to help the young patrol officer solve a murder on the hottest, busiess day of the summer. As the stream of 911 calls overwhelms the already thin police force, the pair find themselves without access to the modern resources police have come to rely on, Det. Broyhill and his young student must rely on reasoning and observation to figure out what happened. The clock is ticking...

There is just something less interesting when the list of suspects is "everybody," and all the great mystery writers find an creative way to limit the characters involved. Sometimes it's a snowstorm, or a train, or a boat on the River Nile. Add to that my love of Locked Room Mysteries, and I had a story challenge I was inching to try.

Unfortunately, locked room mysteries don't happen often in real police work. There was this one case, though...I only needed the right characters to solve it. Enter Friday Hampton, the capable rookie officer who'd been kicking around my head for a while. Right about the time this story was unfolding, she'd be in that place in her career where she'd still need a hand, and that gave me the chance to bring in my master detective, Ambrose Broyhill.

I was very pleased by the way the pair worked together, and I wasn't the only one. Michael Bracken bought the story for BCMM, and much to my surprise, it went on to appear on Otto Penzler's Best Mystery Stories of 2022 Honor Roll. I like to think it's a pretty good mystery.

Think you can solve it before Friday and Ambrose?