Five-minute Mysteries 3. Ken Weber

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      Contents

       Memorandum

       1. Blowing Up the Mackenzie Building

       2. The Worst Kind of Phone Call

       3. A Courtly Gesture

       4. A Dispute on the Ledge

       5. Setting Up the Hit

       6. Under the Home Team Bench

       7. First Impressions Revised

       8. Collecting a Betrayal Fee

       9. Nobody Hides Forever

       10. The Initiation

       11. Taking Over the Thomas Case

       12. A Career Adjustment for Lonnie the “Dipper”

       13. A Second Witness

       14. A Preview of the Contract

       15. A Hero Mistreated?

       16. Concentrating the Search

       17. Don’t Get Caught Speeding in Polk County!

       18. The Unseen Hijacker

       19. A Rash of Break-ins

       20. Random Shots by the River

       21. An Eye for Details

       22. Nathan Greeley’s Personal Effects

       23. Hunting the Blue Morpho

       24. All the Pieces in Place

       25. The Kid’s Idea

       26. The Case of the Skull & Anchor

       27. Milverton’s Deception

       28. Fishing out of Season

       29. The Last Wish of Latimer Orkin

       30. Death in Benton County

       31. The Coroner’s Decision

       32. Where to Send the Dogs

       33. Time for the Mortars?

       34. When Bad Things Come in Threes

       35. Incident at Garibaldi Park

       36. Every Dead Body Has a Story to Tell

       37. A Bad Day to Go up the Mountain

       38. The View from the Parapet

       39. Everything Checked and Double-checked

       40. Murder at the CBA!

       Solutions

      To Jack Atkin,

      who understands that

      a little scotch,

      a lot of flowers,

      great ladies,

      and enduring friendship

      are all that really matter.

Memorandum

       To: ALL MYSTERY BUFFS From: the author

      Mystery buffs know there are only two kinds of people in the world: those that love mysteries and, well, that other kind. A tiny majority, the latter are, and that’s a good thing because they are missing something unique. For only in mysteries can a reader get a charge out of winning or losing.

      It works like this. Nothing gives mystery buffs more satisfaction than getting ahead in a story and beating the writer to the punch. They get a special charge out of combining logic, analysis, intuition and insight so that before they turn the last page, they already have the problem solved. Yet – and this is what sets mystery lovers apart – nothing thrills them more than when the mystery defeats them, and when they turn the last page they find a surprise waiting, something they’d missed.

      Once again, mystery lovers get no less than forty shots at the fun of winning or losing, in a set of wildly different stories. Every mystery in the book is set up for the reader to solve. At the end of each mystery there is a question: Who did…? or What did…? or It seems the thief made a mistake. How could…? Like that.

      There’s great variety. The settings range from city to country, from soccer field to jungle, and from a booksellers’ convention to a theater stage to a Crimean battlefield. There are pickpockets, murderers, con men, and various other crooked characters. You’ll encounter veteran detectives, medical examiners, special agents, a game warden and crime-scene investigators.

      There’s also variety in the level of challenge. As you turn the pages of Five-minute Mysteries 3, you’ll notice one, two or three symbols – a dagger – at the beginning of each story. The number of daggers suggests how easy or difficult the mystery is, one being easy, two being a little harder, and three, difficult. (Or, perhaps more accuratel­y, how easy or difficult each one seems to me.) But don’t let the ratings stop you from enjoying all the mysteries! One that I rate “difficult” might be