Matchlight Mystery: Short Stories Fee: usd $1.99

Matchlight Mystery seeks original detective fiction from new and established writers. We are primarily dedicated to stories in the classical detective mode of mystery fiction. If the story features a puzzling crime and a brilliant investigator with the deductive skills to solve it, we’d love to read it.

We’re captivated by detectives of all kinds: career homicide detectives, meddling amateur sleuths, hardened private eyes, even rookie insurance adjustors. And we’re excited by detective stories of all kinds: police procedurals, hardboiled noir, legal thrillers, comedy cozies, even speculative or supernatural mysteries. If you've been inspired by the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Jane Marple, Sam Spade, Easy Rawlins, V. I. Warshawski, Kosuke Kindaichi, or Harry Dresden, you're in the right place.

Stories should be smart, stimulating, and well-structured. We value strong prose, vivid settings, and unforgettable characters. Above all, we favor stories that are fair play mysteries, featuring a solid plot with clues, credible suspects, clever misdirection, and a satisfying resolution earned through logic and deduction. Detectives should be memorable, with a distinct personality, voice, method, expertise, or perspective.

We consider short stories of almost any length. Our preferred range is 2,500 to 8,000 words. We occasionally publish flash fiction under 1,000 words or novellas over 12,000 words, but only if they're exceptionally well-edited.

Matchlight publishes original work, reprints, and translations. If your story has been previously published, simply note this in your cover letter. We also accept simultaneous submissions, though we ask that you notify us immediately if your story is accepted elsewhere. Detective stories are tales of the human experience and we do not accept fiction generated by large language models or so-called artificial intelligence.