<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Best mystery story I read in a few days<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>Fanny Howe, winner of the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize with over 50 books to her credit, said in her Paris Review interview, \u201cEveryone around me was a writer, and I vowed, Never, ever, ever and then I did.\u201d Well, no one around me was a writer and I vowed always, always, always I would write, and I did. And I\u2019m glad that today\u2019s featured author, Bonnar Spring<\/a>, writes and creates wonderful tales such as the one highlighted today. I met Bonnar at Bouchercon 2025 in New Orleans when, on the first day, Bonnar, Avram Lavinsky<\/a>, and I went to lunch at Mr. Ed\u2019s Oyster Bar and Fish House (I don\u2019t own the place, by the way). I felt like a fanboy talking to them about writing. It was a great start to the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The title of today\u2019s story is \u201cHoodwinked\u201d published in Crimeucopia, What the Butler Didn\u2019t See, A Murderous Ink Press Anthology. I\u2019m a super duper fan of the Crimeucopia oeuvre. The bio in the anthology says that Bonnar is a Derringer (2024 Long Story category for “Good Deed for the Day” in Best New England Crime Stories) award-winning author whose work has appeared in many anthologies. She made the switch to short fiction from international thrillers to satisfy her urge to write morally ambiguous characters. Bonnar also hosts Crime Wave (https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/category\/crimewave<\/a>), the top-rated podcast on the Authors on the Air Radio Network. You can find out more about Bonnar at her website (https:\/\/bonnarspring.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This story, just over 5,000 words, begins with police showing up at the door of the estate of one Margaret \u201cMamie\u201d Longwood, who puts the \u201cshe\u201d in shenanigans. She is the leader of what is best described as a group of modern-day Robin Hoods, minus the swords. There\u2019s Evan, the butler, Vic, the chauffeur, Gina, the chef, and Alice, former award-winning stage actress now personal assistant. The hoodwinked plot comes about when Gina says, \u201cSo while we were swindling him, he was running a hustle on us?\u201d It seems that the hoodwink-ee, a Mr. Charles Beaumont, was also the hoodwink-er. Or was he? Read this terrific tale to find out more. A plethora of hoodwinking is afoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some great sentences from this well-told narrative:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was a lousy start to the day after pulling off a successful con.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn keeping with my public persona, I allowed the silence to build. One does not welcome total strangers into one\u2019s home with excessive bonhomie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe gathered in the parlor. In any other establishment, you\u2019d call it the living room, but a Rockport mansion like ours called for more elegant terminology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe best thing about the gang was that, with each other, we could be our authentic selves: out-of-work actors playing rich and famous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why read this story? It\u2019s entertaining. I could insert adverbs like wonderfully, magnificently, or marvelously but other adverbs would get decidedly jealous. In my last review, I said that that story was in the top 10 of stories I\u2019ve reviewed thus far. This one is in that category as well. But further, this story is a fabulous example of voice, particularly that of the main character, Mamie Longwood. Her vernacular is spectacular, very genteel and upper crust. Added to that is her inner dialogue reminiscent of Dorothy Parker\u2019s character in \u201cThe Waltz.\u201d In short, this is a tale well told in an engaging and interesting way that will leave you wanting more, specifically the mention toward the end where Mamie says \u201cI\u2019ll get even with that swindler one day\u201d referring to a conman who swindled her mom out of everything except the house. Bonnar, I want to read that story if you write it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Woke up to this . . . couldn’t have happened on a better day to get me out of the doldrums! Thank you Ed Ridgley for sharing your thoughts about “Hoodwinked”, John Connor for publishing the story, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society for being the space that makes these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[264,31,168],"class_list":["post-947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-signings-and-other-news","tag-crimeucopia","tag-mystery","tag-shortstory-anthology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":949,"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonnarspring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ed Ridgley<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Short Mystery Fiction Society<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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