If you scroll down a bit, you'll see a short story that first ran a couple of years ago in Shred of Evidence. It's from my novel series - Precinct Puerto Rico. Hope you enjoy:

The Inspector

By

Steven Torres



Like many bad days, this one was starting late. Gonzalo was scheduled to leave the station house and head home in fifteen minutes. His relief had already come in and Mari had called to say dinner was nearly done. Instead of finishing up his paperwork for…

Over at Criminal Brief, the question has been raised as to why so many seem to avoid the short story. The argument is made (I hope to get it right) that working in the short story form helps a writer focus on what is important. Many student writers (a lot is directed at student writers, I think) want to work on novels.

In the comments, I mention that it is not cost efficient for anyone who can sell a novel to spend the time writing short…

This was first published in Crimespree a couple of years ago. Enjoy:

The Driver

By…

Stoop, the Thief

(A Biography)

Part One: Stoop and Clyde…

There are a couple of things that I found interesting about this story (if I do say so myself…). First, it came out of me pretty much the way you see it. I think I may have changed a couple of words here or there, but really it was one of the easiest stories to write that I’ve done. I figured out later that it was in the second person, present tense.

The title, took more time. This story is about Elena Kojcic, Viktor Petrenko’s wife. It didn’t start out that way. It was written before…

Elena Speaks of the City, Under Siege…

When I start writing a book, I have this habit of picking up an Ian Rankin or Ken Bruen novel and paying some close attention to their prose styles. I loved the terseness of their prose. The cadences. Bruen can write like an expert at a machine gun. Picked up THE DRAMATIST at The Black Orchid the other day. I was told about the ending (not what happens, but that I'll be dazzled by it, though Joe used a less polite term if I recall correctly). I haven't gotten to the ending. In fact, I just…

Is it an oxymoron to say that I write Hardboiled Cozies? There is violence, but the stories are set in a small town with a sheriff who knows everyone and the killers are generally people he's known all his life. To my mind, there's a way of looking at even Dame Agatha's books and saying "That's Noir." What's more noir than the ending of Murder on the Orient Express? Not to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it...this is your chance to stop reading...but "Everybody…

The Short Mystery Fiction Society presents the Derringer Award for several categories of short fiction - including Flash fiction of 500 words or less and Longer Short Stories of over 6,000 words. To indulge in a bit of horn tooting and back patting, I have been nominated. Quite exciting. Never been nominated for anything other than committee work at the different colleges I've worked at and the churches I've attended. It makes me feel like I've finally done something well enough to justify…

This year, I'll have two major publications to add to my credit (Yes. I am keeping score.) and they're both noir. For the novel, The Concrete Maze, I think I may have hedged my bets. It's not quite as bleak as it could have been though it is plenty bleak I think.



With the short story, "Early Fall" coming out in late summer in the antho Bronx Noir, I've written a truly noir story. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. There's not even a tunnel (which might…

I have one last ARC of The Concrete Maze, and I figured I'd make it available here on Crimespace. If you're reading this and would like to take a look, leave a message here that says "Send me the ARC" or some such. No points for creativity. In a couple of days, (Which is two days for those of you in Metric countries) I'll put names in a hat. Many will go in, only one will come out. (Of course, there's the strong possibility no one will want to enter this little…

Just did something that I found quite scary - I sent off 25,000 words of a thriller I'm writing to my agent. The hope, of course, is that she'll love it and beg for more. The fear is that she'll hate it and suggest my taking up needlecrafts. Another fear is that the reaction might fall somewhere between those two chairs. That eventuality signifies real work in rewriting which is something I find hard because it is painstaking and... dull.

Now, here is the history of how I got…

Over on Sarah Weinman's blog, there is a thread running about book reviewing - more specifically, how book review space is shrinking in newspapers around the country. It turns out that this is a subject I have a view on. Also, it's snowing heavily outside so I have the time.

It seems to me that the book industry was, for a long time, culturally relevant in ways it can no longer be. That is to say, that at one time it was the only cultural game in town. And the realease of the…

Tribe at Flashing in the Gutters (RIP) was kind enough to post some of my shortest fiction. Now that the site is down, I thought I repost those stories. They were fun to write, Hell to trim down to Flash size. I cut 196 words from the one I post today. Formatting will probably be screwy until I can figure out how to do that. Here goes:…