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Darkness lies just under the surface in our December issue when a Korean War veteran returns to his fallen comrade's hometown in Clark Howard's "Winter's End," and when Adrian Monk takes on the case of an author found dead at his typewriter in Lee Goldberg's "Mr. Monk and the Seventeen Steps" .
Even the happiest-looking marriages often aren't all they seem: a Hollywood writer violently acts out after his wife confesses her affair (in Cynthia Benjamin's Department of First Stories entry "The Actress"); an English husband learns that his wife has put out a hit on him (in NeilSchofield's "Auction"); and an American wife touring Mexico with her husband has many not-so-legitimate reasons to befriend her snorkeling guide (in Doug Levin's "The Docile Shark,"). Even the best, hardest-working folks among us sometimes struggle, as in TomTolnay's fable about temptation at church bingo night ("The Devil Loves to Roll the Dice & Play a Hand of Cards") and Birgid Böseler's portrait of an overworked German housewife who spends her days looking after everyone else's needs ("An Ordinary Day").
Childhood responsibilities loom as large as grownup ones in new stories from Leslie Budewitzand Stephen Ross. A child convinces a cantankerous old man to help search for his missing best friend in Ross's, "The Man With One Eye", and a woman recalls the summer day that marked an irreversible shift in her relationship with her brother in Budewitz's "The Afterthought." In Todd A. Whaley's EQMM debut, a man is plagued by a mix of happy childhood memories and terrifying visions as he goes on the run from his brother ("What Am I?"). Don't miss this issue — it's also your chance to vote for your favorite stories of the year in our annual Readers Award!
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