Mystery Scene is an American magazine, first published in 1985, that covers the crime and mystery genre with a mix of articles, profiles, criticism, and extensive reviews of books, films, TV, short stories, audiobooks, and reference works.
Editorial focus & contents
Mystery Scene is pitched to mystery readers and fans, as opposed to writers or other industry professionals. Each issue contains commentary, several articles, author profiles, appreciations of particular subgenres or writers, letters to the editor, and 150+ reviews of new novels, audiobooks, reference works, kid’s mysteries, short stories, TV shows, films, paperback originals, and websites. News items, cartoons, jokes, quotes, and anecdotes round out its front-of-the book “Hints & Allegations” pages.
Features
Regular columns
Review columns
History
Mystery Scene Magazine was conceived in a phone call between Ed Gorman, a writer and editor of mystery novels, short stories and anthologies, and Robert Randisi, the author of several mystery series, and later the founder and executive director of The Private Eye Writers of America. Both men felt the need for a magazine that would be to the mystery field what was to the science fiction genre—news and views on the genre’s writers and the publishing business. The first issue, four pages long, was mailed with the October 1985 issue of Mystery & Detective Monthly, a letterzine published by active mystery fan Robert “Cap’n Bob” Napier of Tacoma, Washington. By the 52-page third issue in 1986, the magazine was no longer distributed with the fanzine, and the now-standard mix of interviews, profiles, news notes, obituaries, reviews, letters columns, and opinion pieces was established. A feature in which first novelists introduced their works would eventually be extended to veteran writers who discussed their latest novels. The first 75 issues of the magazine form a documentary record of developments, concerns, and controversies in the field over this 17-year period. Short stories appeared occasionally as early as “On Guard” by John Lutz in #5, but they were never a regular feature. In 1990 Gorman’s business partner, anthologist Martin H. Greenberg, became a co-publisher, and by April 1991, Randisi, whose participation had gradually decreased, sold his stake in the magazine to Greenberg. In 2002, owners Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg turned over the reins to , a veteran book and magazine editor in the crime and mystery field, and her husband,Brian Skupin, a long-time mystery fan. Stine is editor-in-chief and handles day-to-day operations. Skupin edited the now retired column "What's Happening With" and oversees MysterySceneMag.com. Their first issue, Fall #76 in September 2002, featured a lengthy tribute to outgoing editor and publisher Ed Gorman, "Ed Gorman: Writer, Editor, Mentor," from his many friends in the mystery community.
The American Mystery Award is a major award given by Mystery Scene magazine in past years. For example, Richard Hoyt's book Siege won the American Mystery Award for Best Espionage Novel. The award has been discontinued.
