Mystery Scene Magazine, one of the major sources of reviews of mystery books and articles for and about mystery authors, will publish its last issue in November 2022.
A Terrible Loss for the Mystery Community
Each of the four issues per year were chock full of reviews that included small press publications, paperback originals, audiobooks, reference books, short story anthologies and books from major publishers. In addition to articles about authors and issues of interest to mystery lovers, four authors were each given a full page to write about their recently released book, in a feature called “My Book.”
It’s Personal Too.
The loss is personal for me. I’ve run full-page ads for my NYPD Detective Chiara Corelli mysteries in many issues of Mystery Scene in the last couple of years. I chose the magazine because of the large number of subscribers in hopes of reaching dedicated mystery readers beyond the writing community. Of course, I have no idea of how or whether the ads impacted sales of the series but that’s true of most advertising.
And though the magazine never reviewed any of my Corelli books, Publisher and Editor in Chief Kate Stine gave me the opportunity to write several My Book features and published an article I wrote to expose the mainstream mystery community to the wide range of lesbians writing mysteries with lesbian protagonists as amateur detectives, PIs, police officers, and FBI agents. This was invaluable exposure for me and for all the authors included in the article.
Fall 2002 was the first issue Kate Stine and Brian Skupin put out as publishers and owners. Twenty years is not long enough but it’s a good run. Thank you, Kate and Brian. You will be missed.
Catherine Maiorisi
In addition to her mysteries and her general fiction GOLDIE winner, The Disappearance of Lindy James, Catherine has authored five romances novels. Her latest, Love Among the Ruins, won the GOLDIE for Best Romance–long.
Catherine has also published multiple mystery and romance short stories in various anthologies.
Hadn’t heard this— very sorry to see it fold.
Now I know why I couldn’t reach them to order a gift subscription. Truly a black arm band day. ?
We are in Dec. 2024, and I still greatly miss Mystery Scene. I have found no publication to equal it and am lost in my mystery reading without it. I thoroughly enjoyed the magazine and have kept a few of issues. Thank you for all the enjoyment it brought me.