Darusha Wehm's Blog

We are thrilled to share that Craig Faustus Buck’s story, “Honeymoon Sweet” is this year’s Macavity Award winner for best short story.

First published inMurder at the Beach: The Bouchercon Anthology 2014, “Honeymoon Sweet” was featured in Plan B Volume V. You can get theebook of Plan B Volume V here, read the story onlinehere or listen to the podcast here.

Congratulations to Craig and all the other Macavity winners!… Read the rest

It’s been a great couple ofyears of stories, but as of now Plan B is on hiatus.

We may returnin the future with more tales of plans gone wrong, but for now we are focussing on other projects. Thanks for reading, listening, commenting, writing and otherwise being part of Plan B.… Read the rest

Listen to this story on the podcast.

All her neighbors agreed that Henrietta Soames had murdered her husband.

An investigation followed the discovery of his body; his death was ultimately ruled a homicide. But after initially questioning Henrietta the police dismissed her as a suspect. Apparently, they had no evidence to charge her. Eventually the authorities ascribed his death to a botched burglary, which seemed reasonable to an objective observer, but not to anyone living nearby. The police...

Listen to this story on the podcast.

The hubbub of the cafe offered a pleasant background noise. It was Saturday and customers in the Starbucks seemed generally relaxed and to be enjoying their conversations. It was the beginning of spring and the morning sun allowed most to be in t-shirts and some to venture into shorts. Russell sat at the corner table in a sleeveless striped shirt and blue jeans. His second Frappucino sat as yet untouched while he leafed through his Classic Rock magazine. H...

Listen to this story on the podcast.

Jimmy told me about the burglary almost exactly a year after it happened. Right after we got thrown out of the pawnshop where Jimmy tried to sell the jewelry.

He had gone into a house one afternoon, Jimmy told me, with a guy everybody called Howie The Dog because he could sniff out excellent burglary sites. A shaded corner house in “a nice doctor and lawyer neighborhood,” as Jimmy put it. Howie and Jimmy felt sure they’d hit big money when they saw the tux...

Listen to this story on the podcast.

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The wire digging into my wrists and the punches to the gut and face were unnecessary. I would have given them the name based on mean looks and harsh language. Depending on the day, they could have just asked nicely.

After digging another upper cut into the extra padding around my mid-section, he said, “Give me a name.” I looked up with full intention of not only telling him a name, but spelling it. Only when I looked up, standing behind the steroid ju...

Listen to this story on the podcast.

Gentlemen’s Night Club, where I pole danced, reeked of cigarette smoke and stale booze. Heat from the overhead spotlights illuminated the stage floor and made my skin clammy. I bumped and gyrated to the tune “Let’s Get it On” in front of twenty or so leering men with beer bottles in one hand and a fistful of dollars in the other. I pasted on a smile as their sweaty groping fingers slid the green stuff into my g-string.

Scanning the room, I spotted two men...

Listen to this story on the podcast.

The house was in the hot part of Hollywood. The part where the sun doesn’t shine tourist-bright and pleasant, but rather hot and oppressive; the part where you’d never dream in your wildest scar-dust dreams that there was a great big, cool blue ocean only five miles away. In this part of Hollywood, people were actually punished for their sins.

The house was between a pool hall on the right and a vacant lot on the left. It was a nice house — for a midget. I...

Listen to this story on the podcast.

An amber bulb lit up on the board and Audrey Cain reflexively inserted a plug into the hole below it.

“Mr. Gray’s office. May I help you?” she asked as automatically as she had made the connection. She barely heard the name on the other end of the line before plugging in the wire to connect the call and disconnecting herself.

Another light flashed and she repeated the process, inserting the name of one of the district sales managers, Walter Huff. This tim...

Congratulations to Craig Faustus Buck, whose story Honeymoon Sweet (reprinted in Plan B Vol V) has beennominated for a 2015Anthony Award.

Also, his new novel, Go Down Hard was released today.

Double congratulations, Craig!… Read the rest