2021 Prose competition reading and voting thread

Congratulations to our deserved winner and all entrants and everyone who took time to read and vote. (And Pondy of course!).

I wrote Murder Miss Teri and Say That Again, so thanks for my votes!

@neilarini said
Congratulations to our deserved winner and all entrants and everyone who took time to read and vote. (And Pondy of course!).

I wrote Murder Miss Teri and Say That Again, so thanks for my votes!

@neilarini said
Congratulations to our deserved winner and all entrants and everyone who took time to read and vote. (And Pondy of course!).

I wrote Murder Miss Teri and Say That Again, so thanks for my votes!

@torunn said
Well, thanks for letting us know. Murder Miss Teri was my number one vote. 😍

My entry was No Obvious Motive - which on closer inspection makes perfect sense. Like my forums posts: a bit pretentious at times, trying to be clever with uneven success, and upon further inspection there is less there than meets the eye.

Kudos to all the writers and voters. I would have voted twice if I could (if this was Chicago I could have), so six authors could have gotten the little personal bump from a vote. Two voters had my tale of love on the scoresheet - for that I will be forever grateful.

@they said
My entry was No Obvious Motive - which on closer inspection makes perfect sense. Like my forums posts: a bit pretentious at times, trying to be clever with uneven success, and upon further inspection there is less there than meets the eye.

Kudos to all the writers and voters. I would have voted twice if I could (if this was Chicago I could have), so six authors could have go ...[text shortened]... from a vote. Two voters had my tale of love on the scoresheet - for that I will be forever grateful.

I had three entries this year where I focused on the 'mystery' element rather than a classic "who done it", being:

1. Emergency: This idea was inspired by my daughter, as she asked if the computer game "Among Us" was a murder mystery, which it is, so I tried to create a story based around the game.

2. Death Becomes Us: Was a first draft, and more a rant about how humanity is murdering Mother Earth, the mystery (to me) is why we continue to do so.

3. Murder Mystery Concept (I forgot to put a title on it - so it was my working title) : Was a particularly 'British' affair, as the characters are all based around real people and ages (based on Wiki) and the mystery (for me) was when was Professor Whitty murdered - and in fact, was it a murder, did his 'Humanity' soul move into the machine - and given that he is still there at the end, has there been a murder (except for the others killed in the fire)?


Thank you to those who voted for my efforts, and I will redouble my efforts next year.

PS. Do we know who wrote the top 3 yet?

@paul-a-roberts said
I had three entries this year where I focused on the 'mystery' element rather than a classic "who done it", being:

1. Emergency: This idea was inspired by my daughter, as she asked if the computer game "Among Us" was a murder mystery, which it is, so I tried to create a story based around the game.

2. Death Becomes Us: Was a first draft, and more a rant about ho ...[text shortened]... e fire)?


Thank you to those who voted for my efforts, and I will redouble my efforts next year.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Yours was in my top 6.

😀

@they said
We listen to a radio show on the weekends (especially in the summer) called Old Time Radio that plays radio shows from the 40's and 50's. There are a lot of Boston Blackie and Phillip Marlow type hard-boiled detectives and Forty Whacks reminded me of those shows.

I even had Mrs. they read it - she liked it very much too. Well done.

As promised a few words on the stories. I am open to add more words if authors want them.


#1 A perfect murder
This one was a study in vengeance. A well planned vengeance, that goes to the extreme. The teller of the story was a bit too political for my liking. The murder story inside a murder story was well crafted. It was too horrendous for me. So it made my personal long list, but got no vote.

#2 Death becomes us
The story of humankind killing Earth is appealing for that topic. The change in the point of view at the last paragraph was a bit of a break. The whole story not really a mystery. It was very clear after a short while who was doing the talking.

#3 Forty Whacks
Very British if I may say so in choice of words. Another tale of vengeance, this time the victim is not the victim… Things remain unclear to me: How could James have wielded the axe if he has no fingers (or is just the last joint missing?)?If he has no fingers (which should be quite evident if he is cuffed) why is the one cop going on about finger prints? And the setting up of his brother was a bit too strong I think. (don’t bring the cops on the idea that you knew which axe was used, why present a motive for him, police will find it anyway&hellip😉

#4 Horror in the alleyways
The first serial murder here. Very dense atmosphere. To answer the question: The blacksmith a big man with probably large footprints is more likely to be the killer. The motive: Also some kind of vengeance on the misfits). Well put up of a person who had been unfortunate to have the face burned: (The unknown or the unusual making people uneasy). This one was also on my long list.

#5 Letter from a hanged man
A very moving story of a man who came to see much clearer when crisis happened than decades before. Well done. However the story is missing a bit of logic to me: If he let the murdering grandmother live, how did she work out what happened. How could she let him be convicted of murder? I would very much hear about her side of the story. Plus if Emily grew up with the knowledge that here own grandfather has been hanged for murdering her mother, and somehow coped with that…why re-traumatize her? I think this story woud work very well as part of a bigger ensemble…

#6 Murder at Honeysuckle Place
A story I really liked. A certain air of lightness about it. Especially after the mystery cleared and no real murder had occurred. The three cats are remarkably well characterized as is the cat keeper. It works well in this short form. Another one from the long list. (had I known that it would get no point I might have changed my vote)
#7 Murder Miss Teri
I am really sorry we have to do away with you now that the secret is out…
In fact I liked the story and the many references to RHP. A lot of questions remains open however and we have the case where the verbose murder is telling too much, trying to get the victim to praise him?

#8 Murder mystery concept
Well done piece on the philosophy of murder and life. This would work much better in a longer setting I think. As it is presented it is quite compressed and the explanations make it not very fluid…
#9 No Obvious Motive
Another one which would deserve a bit of a longer format. The logic behind the gathered wives is unclear (where exactly had they been when the shooting occurred?) The police would have surely pressed wife two (fingerprints on the weapon?? She well known of hating him?) and wife three (powder smoke on her sweatshirt??) would have wife one lied for them?

#10 Emergency
A space murder mystery. I have enjoyed some. That all persons had colours as names was a nice idea. But the story is a bit problematic due to logic problems. I would need a layout of the ship to get the movements in a logic relationship. Blanche and Rogue search electric as do Noir and Verte? Gris can lose Bleu and Rose in the Reactor, but go through the vents to electric, commit two murders and come back to the reactor in time before the lights go on? How can he go through the ducts and Rose has dirty knees? The navigator (Jaune I presume) is dead, can they find their route? How many people do they need to steer the ship? What would be the motive of the serial murder spree?

#11 A secret forever
This story is multilayered. I like that. On one layer we do have the policewoman who is not treated with respect by her superior who uses the old “all in jest” defense. On a second layer we do have the relationship of her to the murdered. We don’t know exactly, but good enough. And we have Andy, who would murder for her…but who probably feels a bit taken back of telling here that he took out the vengeance/rescue operation. A small logic problem: Police would probably have tried to get something using the blood stain. Got second place from me.
#12 Say that again…
Cluedo becoming a reality. Well done.

#13 Sleepwalker
This one got under my skin. It could be a good novel. Murderous child….wow!

#14 The cat did it

Sorry I have not to say much about this. In fact I probably missed the point. 

@ponderable said

#3 Forty Whacks
Very British if I may say so in choice of words. Another tale of vengeance, this time the victim is not the victim… Things remain unclear to me: How could James have wielded the axe if he has no fingers (or is just the last joint missing?)?If he has no fingers (which should be quite evident if he is cuffed) why is the one cop going on about finger prints ...[text shortened]... he idea that you knew which axe was used, why present a motive for him, police will find it anyway&hellip😉

The cat did it was a bit of fun, if one person smiled I'm happy

Edit: Sorry for not voting, couldn't make my mind up and not a reader of murder mysteries so not the best judge anyway.