He may be entering his sixties, but Iowa writer and Mystery Scene editor/publisher Ed Gorman shows no signs of slowing down. His latest novel, "Save the Last Dance for Me", the fourth in his nostalgic yet edgy Sam McCain mystery series was published earlier this Spring but Gorman, (with partner Martin Greenberg) is also putting plenty of time and energy packaging collections of short stories and novels for Five Star Mysteries, a division of Gale Publishing.
      "After about 19 years of writing novels, I know hundreds of mystery writers around the world," commented Gorman in a recent interview. As a result, "We get everything." Numerous well known authors have been published by Five Star, including the ubiquitous Lawrence Block, equally prolific Ed McBain and good old Donald Westlake. Gorman's true genre passion may be the short story. "I think the short story is an essential part of crime fiction," says Ed. The form began with Edgar Allan Poe, and was later embraced by English writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle." Also given extra attention are first time novelists: "We've published over a dozen so far."
      Although Five Star Mysteries aren't especially marketed to the retail world -- they are mainly distributed to libraries along with Gale's reference line, the interested reader can certainly purchase them. Visit the web site at: www.galegroup.com/fivestar/ for more details, and show your support for the spirit of indie publishing.
      Houses like Five Star are filling a crucial need for writers and readers. In recent years, the major publishers have dropped dozens of mystery writers, a topic, according to Jonnie Jacobs (author of the Kali O'Brien and Kate Austen series') "writers talk about among themselves all the time. Now that there are fewer publishers, they're all l looking for the same thing: a bestseller. It doesn't seem to matter whether the writing is any good, it's just about sales figures. Unfortunately, most people don't look beyond the heavily promoted big names."
      Hope does exist; along with Five Star, readers can discover additional, though still too-low-on the-radar publishing endeavors such as The Poisoned Pen Press, (poisonedpenpress.com) an outgrowth of the seminal Scottsdale bookstore of the same name, who have a fine list of both reprints (including Robert Barnard, Nicholas Kilmer and Susan Moody) and original editions, featuring such UK stalwarts as Val McDermid and H.R. F. Keating. The crisply designed web site eloquently addresses the lack of variety in today's homogenous publishing environment.
      Other intrepid publishing forces include Rue Morgue, specialists in classic mystery reprints (www.ruemorguepress.com) and Crippen and Landru, (www.crippenlandru.com) who focus on short story collections from major players such as Margaret Maron, Peter Lovesey and Bill Pronzini. Links to numerous other small but important publishers can be found at the ever engaging Kate Derie's site, www.cluelass.com.
      Two new psychological suspense novels illuminate the diversity of mystery fiction. The plot of "The Lonely Places," by J.M. Morris (Delacorte Press)revolves around an emotionally fragile woman's search for her brother who has seemingly disappeared from his teaching job in a remote northern England backwater. A blend of sexual intrigue, hallucinatory sequences and unusual sleuthing by the protagonist add up to a truly bizarre, sometimes overly Stephen Kingish sense of foreboding menace, and despite a way too vague denouement, readers looking for an offbeat detour into a twisted physical and metal landscape will be happily sated.
      In "The Horned Man," by James Lasdun, (W.W. Norton) the narrator, a professor at a New York University finds himself in a surreal realm from page one. He presents himself as a rational being, but we soon know better: allusions to Kafka come quickly and the professor is befuddled by a series of odd occurrences -- objects related to a former disgraced colleague appear in his office, he apparently begins an affair with a woman at the school, but then forgets what he's done, a steel pipe similar to one which was used in the murder of a woman he encounters shows up in his office, his shrink asks him questions about his behavior he can't comprehend. Gradually it dawns on him that he may be a killer. At once confounding and compelling, "The Horned Man" engages the intellect with literary underpinnings on nearly every page.
      "The Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery," by Bruce F. Murphy, (St. Martin's) originally published in 1999, now in paper, is one of the most subjective reference books I've ever read. Part of the problem is that it's all written by the same person, as opposed to the comprehensive but out of print "Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers." Murphy does cover a wide range of genre writers, characters, specific titles, sub genres (if you want to know about Golf mysteries, look no further) but he wastes plenty of space with entries such as definitions of "goof" or "mug". His treatment of contemporary novelists such as Walter Mosley and Dennis Lehane couldn't be much more superficial, yet Murphy excels when summarizing the career of Chester Himes. Bound to provoke many a spirited conversation, this Encyclopedia does offer the mystery buff hours of enjoyment (and a little annoyance, too.)

Where are they now?
     Last heard from in 1996, Dallas Murphy was an up and coming storyteller who mixed murder and laughs in his four Artie Deemer mysteries. We liked Artie, but we miss his damn dog, Jellyroll even more. "Lover Man" might be the best of the bunch.

      Stephen Gallagher, a versatile British writer (he penned numerous Dr. Who stories) is the author of one of the best thrillers in memory, 1995's "Red, Red Robin"- a striking tale of stalker vs. victim but seems to have fallen off the map mystery-wise.

      And what about apparent one hit wonder, the pseudonymous "John Flood"? His debut, "Bag Men," (1997) a wild ride through Boston in the mid 1960s, showed promise and panache. The jacket copy says this native of Boston is a federal prosecutor, and "already at work on his next thriller for Norton." Hmm...guess dealing with real life crooks got in the way of the fictional ones.