Anthology
When we found out Denver was going to host Left Coast Crime in March 2025, we knew it would be the perfect time and place to launch our very first short story anthology. And it was!
This is a fun and unique premise for an anthology. There's a "mystery merge" story that kicks off the book. A high profile crime occurs in Colorado. Each story that follows is set in Colorado during the same week and includes a clue for the reader to solve the kickoff story, hence the "mystery merge." The clues are dropped in organically, from various news sources that each author crafts into their own stand-alone story. You know how when there's a big story you hear bits and pieces about it on your car radio, on social media, on TV, and around the water cooler at work? That's the premise here. All the unrelated characters in each story are all hearing about the same high profile murder. Careful readers of the anthology can solve the mystery merge story. But don't feel bad if you don't, many readers have told us they were having so much fun reading the stories, they forgot to solve it!
We're happy to say we're hard at work on Colorado Mystery Merge—Crime Fiction Collection 2!
Contributors must be members of Sisters in Crime-Colorado for at least a year before submitting to the anthology.
Colorado Authors League Top 3 Finalist in the 2025 Awards
One perplexing murder mystery … plus eighteen different short stories containing the clues to solve it.
You’ve never read a short story anthology like this one!
These stories—unrelated, but all set in Colorado during the same week—will each merge for a moment to drop a pertinent clue about an overarching mystery, the news of which is blanketing the entire state that week.
Colorado icon and local celebrity, Doctor Dictionary, is murdered at a fundraiser where he was to be honored for his philanthropy. “Murder at the Twelve Mooses Ballroom” by Becky Clark kicks off the fun.
As you read each standalone short story that follows, channel your inner detective and collect the mystery merge clues to figure out who killed Doctor Dictionary.
You’ll find nineteen entertaining short mysteries by talented Colorado authors—all members of Sisters in Crime Colorado—writing in various crime fiction genres from cozy to thriller. There’s something for everyone!
Take a tour of
Colorado through the imagination of some of the best crime writers in
the state: Amy Rivers, Ann Dominguez, Becky Clark, Brooke Craig, Donnell
Ann Bell, Fleur Bradley Visscher, Francelia Belton, G.P. Gottlieb,
Holly Harris, Jenna Lincoln, Kerry Hammond, Leanne Kale Sparks, Linda
Solaya, Marie Sutro, Mary Birk, Meagan Dallner, Melissa Robbins, Peg
Brantley, and Rhonda Blackhurst.
Ebook is available everywhere … paperback at Bookshop, your favorite bookstore, or Amazon.
And ask your library to carry it!
