A CLEAR PATH TO CROSS
by Ed Lynskey
AN INTRODUCTION
Meet Private Eye Sharon Knowles . . .
Sharon, early-mid 30s, is single, ash-blonde, and jogs to stay trim. She lives in a brick bungalow she just bought in Bay City, Virginia, a made-up suburb just outside of Washington, D.C. Her wit is wry, her P.I. style is old school. She carries a gun and shoots straight.
Her godfather, Captain MacSorley, heads the police department. Her boyfriend, Zelmo Zuggs, is a NASCAR fan and up for anything fun.
After Sharon graduated from the Virginia State Police Academy, Captain MacSorley snapped her up to work his beat. Her efforts in a community outreach program for youth gangs have had mixed results. But she doesn’t back down. She takes on several cases involving adolescents here.
After logging in seven hard years as a Homicide detective, Sharon quit the Bay City PD and hung out her P.I. shingle, but she often consults for Captain MacSorley and the city.
Her “temporary” office is at a rental self-storage facility run by her loyal pal, Ray Butcher. In exchange for her security services, he lets her use the space rent-free.
Despite the grueling hours and the relentless hustling for new business, Sharon just does manage to break even. Her father Lonnie had to sell the Knowles farm to developers and her mother Arlene, a librarian, lives in a distant city.
Some of the yarns here are lighthearted while the others take a grittier bent. A few have Sharon as a private eye while the other stories are police procedurals of the days when she wore the blue uniform. Since she worked Homicide, Sharon investigates murders as a P.I., a bit different than her contemporaries.
All but one of these early short stories appeared in the paper and online pulp venues—including the notable HandHeldCrime, Orchard Press Mysteries, and Hardluck Stories—during and after the dot-com bubble. Grateful acknowledgement and thanks are extended to the enthusiastic, dedicated editors of those short fiction ’zines as well as their mystery fans and readers.
Source: The Thrilling Detective website
Nine Green Fingers — Hardluck Stories
Teeth of the Hydra — Orchard Press Mysteries
The Liars Shall Fall First — HandHeldCrime
See You in September—first time published
Faux Graffiti — Detective Mystery Stories (Fading Shadows)
Rock Creek Park — Detective Mystery Stories
Polcum’s Pulpit — New Mystery Reader Magazine
Blood Along the Tracks — Judas Ezine
Watching the Detectives — Detective Mystery Stories
Karate Joe — Detective Mystery Stories
Murder in Bamboo Park — EWG Without A Clue
The Cedar Abbey — New Mystery Reader Magazine
Good Catch, Rookie — Long Story Short
Busted! — Detective Mystery Stories
Last Whistle Stop — Clever Magazine
A Person of Honor — Clever Magazine
The Other Mrs. Jones — Mysterical-E
Collection Agency — EWG Without A Clue
Deep Six — Detective Mystery Stories
Carrot Crazy — Vermont Ink