Short whodunits where the clues are stated plainly. A good place to start, a quick win on a busy day, and a favorite with younger readers and classrooms.
Margie found herself sitting on a couch all alone in her darkened living room. She knew that she was a snooze hound who had a habit of falling asleep at the drop of the…
“Quartermaster!” Captain Robert’s bellow was usually loud enough to be heard in the maintop, even in a three-reef gale. Today, with the Jackdaw becalmed and wallowing…
Larry and Zach agreed about one thing that the military reported a gigantic hot-air balloon that crashed into the desert in 1947, filled with top-secret research…
My first experience of war was in April 1775. Revolutionaries had just taken control of each of the British North American colonies and set up the Second Continental…
“Yes honey?” “Are you okay?” It was on the tip of his tongue to respond with a hearty “yes,” but she studied him with such earnestness that he couldn't. “Not really…
Anyway, the thief only took one thing: a string of green pearls that was going on display during our town's St. Patrick's Day celebration. The mayor asked us if we…
Andersonville Military Prison, deep in the heart of Dixieland Georgia, was the most dreaded of Confederate prisoner-of-war camps. It was such a grim place that the…
Diane had to hurry if she wanted to catch the sunrise before going to blow revelry over the loudspeakers to awaken the camp. Blasting everyone out of bed each morning…
Cannons fired in Maryland, as 45,000 Confederate soldiers crossed the Potomac River, approaching Washington, D.C. But far away in Illinois, a lonely Union sergeant…
TJ was up at the crack of dawn the following morning, anxious to see the new ice on the new rink. He listened to the sportscast on the radio as he threw on his clothes…
The old graveyard out on the edge of town was a favorite meeting point for Tommy Allen and his friends. You may say that this was a strange place for young men to get…
Steve Clairborne stretched his long arms up over his head and yawned. Another morning of tedious audit work had at last gone by the wayside. “How ‘bout lunch, guys?”…
When Merv Weiss called me in on the Great Candy Cane Caper, I wasn’t exactly striped with enthusiasm. His sons, the Weiss boys, or the Three Weiss Men as they were…
Leon Adams clocked in a few minutes before 10:00 a.m. on a very mild and sunny Tuesday in April, as he was supposed to. It took only a few minutes to open the cash…
He rushed down to the edge of the pond to welcome his first billed guests. But they quickly duck-paddled away from him, over to the other side of the pond. “Skittish…
As if reading the mind of the “guilty” person, Fred continued, “As you know, our daughter Sarah died of leukemia in December of 1980, just before Christmas. That hurt…
The Brighton police were baffled. And, I must admit, it was a troublesome case. Fortunately, I was taking my August fortnight holiday in Brighton and happened to be on…
While the younger children were evenly split into four boys and four girls, the same was not the case with the older children. For the older children, there were four…
It all started when my parents went back to the old country, Poland, for a summer visit. They enjoyed themselves and came back somewhat enlightened, with all sorts of…
Reverend Dan Parsons had to admit to some human pride whenever he thought of the church he had built. Now in its sixth year, what had started as a handful of people in…
American newspapers cheered the surprise victory of "Doolittle's Raiders". It was April 18, 1942, and the famous American aviator had assembled 80 flying volunteers…
Christmas Eve in the home of Leonard and Marie Hadley was the highlight of the year for the Hadley grandchildren. Leonard and Marie hosted the family Christmas Eve get…
Mashed potatoes. Stuffing. Gravy. Pumpkin pie. We had all of the ingredients for a perfect Thanksgiving. Except, we were missing the main course — a turkey. "I saw it…
They stood in a circle—their eyes darting around wildly in their sockets, briefly meeting to exchange uneasy glares. The intensity in the air was so thick it could be…
