Once again Rick at the Rick Mills Project will be offering up the Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge as well as the Six Shooter Challenge and the Mystery Marathon. I, having no self-control when it comes to challenges--especially mystery-related challenges, will--of course--sign up for all three. For full details, check out the link above after the new year starts. Basically, just read mysteries and log the number of named corpses on his handy form.
Rick doesn't require a sign-up post, but in order to claim this one as complete on my own personal challenge tally sheet, I must submit at least 20 death certificate reports. With the number of mysteries I read per year, this doesn't prove too difficult--so, there should be plenty of toe tags signed by "Quincy" Hankins at the Mystillery Morgue.
Rick doesn't require a sign-up post, but in order to claim this one as complete on my own personal challenge tally sheet, I must submit at least 20 death certificate reports. With the number of mysteries I read per year, this doesn't prove too difficult--so, there should be plenty of toe tags signed by "Quincy" Hankins at the Mystillery Morgue.
1. Don Among the Dead Men by C. E. Vulliamy [7 deaths] (1/7/26)
2. Death on the Slopes by Norma Schier [4 deaths] (1/9/26)
3. The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson [2 deaths] (1/12/26)
4. Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers [11 deaths] (1/18/26)
5. Old Bones by Herman Petersen [5 deaths] (1/20/26)
6. High Marks for Murder by Rebecca Kent [one death] (1/22/26)
7. A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie [5 deaths] (1/25/26)
*****************The following are from Masterpieces of Mystery: Amateurs & Professionals by Ellery Queen, ed (1/31/26)
8. "Chambrun & the Electronic Ear" by Hugh Pentecost [one death]
9. "The Poisoned Dow '08" by Dorothy L. Sayers [one death]
10. "The Stripper" by H. H. Holmes (one death)
11. "Wally the Watchful Eye" by Paul W. Fairman [one death]
12. "They Can Only Hang You Once" by Dashiell Hammett [2 deaths]
13. "Wild Goose Chase" by Ross Macdonald [3 deaths]
14. "File #1: The Mayfield Case" by Joe Goes [one death]
15. "About the Perfect Crime of Mr. Digberry" by Anthony Abbot [one death]
16. "The Devil Is a Gentleman" by Charles B. Child [one death]
17. "A Winter's Tale" by Frances & Richard Lockridge [one death]
18. "The Motive" by Ellery Queen [3 deaths]
19. "Cause for Suspicion" by George Harmon Coxe [one death]
20. "The Botany Pattern" by Victor Canning [3 deaths]
Commitment met
21. "H as in Homicide" by Lawrence Treat [one death]
22. "Nightshade" by Ed McBain [6 deaths]
*********************
23. Aristotle Detective by Margaret Doody [one death] (2/3/26)
24. Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys [4 deaths] (2/4/26)
25. The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Great War by Simon Guerrier [8 deaths] (2/7/26)
26. Death for a Double by E. X. Giroux [5 deaths] (2/7/26)
27. The Plumley Inheritance by Christopher Bush [5 deaths] (2/13/26)
********************The following are from Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives by Sarah Weinman, ed (2/18/26)
28. "The Heroine" by Patricia Highsmith [one death]
29. "A Nice Place to Stay" by Nedra Tyre [5 deaths]
30. "Lavender Lady" by Barbara Callahan [one death]
31. "Sugar & Spice" by Vera Caspary [2 deaths]
32. "The Purple Shroud" by Joyce Harrington [one death]
33. "The Stranger in the Car" by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding [2 deaths]
34. "The Splintered Monday" by Charlotte Armstrong [one death]
35. "Lost Generation" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis [one death]
36. "Mortmain" by Miriam Allen Deford [one death]
**********************
37. Escape While I Can by Melba Marlett [13 deaths] (2/19/26)
38.The Fourth Policeman by Craig Rice [8 deaths] (2/25/26)
39. The Avenging Chance by Anthony Berkeley [8 deaths] (2/28/26)
40. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith [5 deaths] (3/2/26)
41. A Lady's Guide to Mischief & Mayhem by Manda Collins [10 deaths] (3/7/26)
42. That Affair Next Door by Anna Katharine Green [one death] (3/11/26)
43. The Gaunt Stranger by Edgar Wallace [7 deaths] (3/16/26)
44. Portrait of a Nightingale by Manda Collins [3 deaths] (3/17/26)
45. Murder Enters the Picture by Willetta Ann Barber & R. F. Schabelitz [5 deaths] (3/20/26)
46. Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne [7 deaths] (3/21/26)
47. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie [3 deaths] (3/22/26)
48. Shadow of Madness by Hugh Pentecost [5 deaths] (3/23/26)
49. An Heiress's Guide to Deception & Desire by Manda Collins [5 deaths] (3/25/26)
50. The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead [12 deaths] (4/1/26)
51. Tied Up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh [2 deaths] (4/4/26)
52. Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie [3 deaths] (4/3/26)
53. Harriet Farewell by Margaret Erskine [7 deaths] (4/8/26)
54. Hercule Poirot & the Greenshore Folly by Agatha Christie [5 deaths] (4/9/26)
55. Dead Man's Mirror by Agatha Christie [7 deaths] (4/11/26)
56. Treasure of Hemlock Mountain by Virginia Frances Voight [one death] (4/11/26)
57. The Methods of Sergeant Cluff by Gil North [2 deaths] (4/13/26)
58. The Body in the Dumb River by George Bellairs [4 deaths] (4/16/26)
59. A Case of Mice & Murder by Sally Smith [3 deaths] (4/18/26)
60. Murder on Eaton Square by Lee Strauss [3 deaths] (4/20/26)
61. Murder by Plum Pudding by Lee Strauss [one death] (4/22/26)
62. Who Done It? by Jon Scieszka (compiler & editor) [4 deaths] (4/25/26)
63. When the Wolves Are Silent by C. S. Harris [19 deaths]) (4/26/26)
***************The following stories are from Murder Mayhem Short Stories by Christopher Semtner [foreword] (5/2/26)
64. "The Wendigo Goes Home" by Sara Dobie Bauer [one death]
65. "The Death of Halpin Frayser" by Ambrose Bierce [2 deaths]
66. "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce [one death]
67. "The Rector of Veilbye" by Steen Steensen Blicher [3 deaths]
68. "Dr. Hyde, Detective & the White Pillars Murder" by G. K. Chesterton [one death]
69. "Who Killed Zebedee?" by Wilkie Collins [one death]
70. "The Problem of Dead Wood Hall" by Dick Donovan [2 deaths]
71. "The Brazilian Cat" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [one death]
72. "Nineteen Sixty-Four Ford Falcon" by Tim Foley [2 deaths]
73. "Mama Said" by Steven Thor Gunnin [2 deaths]
74. "Six Aspects of Cath Baduma" by Kate Heartfield [one death]
75. "The Thing Invisible" by William Hope Hodgson [one death]
76. "Freedom Is Not Free" by David M. Hoenig [5 deaths]
77. "Mademoiselle de Scuderi" by E. T. A. Hoffman [6 deaths]
78. "Pigeons from Hell" by Robert E. Howard [6 deaths]
79. "Two Out of Three Rule" by Patrick J. Hurley [one death]
80. "The Well" by W. W. Jacobs [2 deaths]
81. "In the Penal Colony" by Franz Kafka [one death]
82. "Getting Shot in the Face Still Stings" by Michelle Ann King [2 deaths]
83. "The Return of Imray" by Rudyard Kipling [2 deaths]
84. "Less Than Katherine" by Claude Lalumiere [8 deaths]
85. "The Hound" by H. P. Lovecraft [one death]
86. "From Beyond" by H. P. Lovecraft [2 deaths]
87. "Drive Safe" by K. A. Mielke [2 deaths]
88. "In the Dark" by Edith Nesbitt [3 deaths]
89. "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe [one death]
90. "The Azure Ring" by Arthur B. Reeves [three deaths]
91. "Redux" by Alexandra Camille Renwick [one death]
92. "The First Seven Deaths of Mildred Orly" by Fred Senese [6 deaths]
93. "Markheim" by Robert Louis Stevenson [one death]
94. "The Dualists by Bram Stoker [4 deaths]
95. "Mister Ted" by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt [3 deaths]
96. "Cheese" by Ethel Lina White [one death]
97. "Corpses Removed, No Questions Asked" by Dean H. Wild [4 deaths]
98. "Lord Savile's Crime: A Study of Duty" by Oscar Wilde [2 deaths]
99. "Fragments of Me" by Nemma Wollenfang [one death]
*************************
100. Murder in Bright Red by Frances Crane [3 deaths] (5/4/26)
101. The Anatomist's Apprentice by Tessa Harris [8 deaths] (5/5/26)
102. Who Killed Alfred Snowe? by J. S. Fletcher [6 deaths] (5/8/26)
103. These Names Make Clues by E. C. R. Lorac [3 deaths] (5/12/26)
104. How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin [3 deaths] (5/16/26)
105. Squire of Death by Richard Lockridge [4 deaths] (5/17/26)
106. No Peace for the Wicked by E. X. Ferrars [3 deaths] (5/18/26)
107. The Evil That Men Do by Hugh Pentecost [6 deaths] (5/19/26)
108. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun [3 deaths] (5/21/26)
109. The Buttercup Case by Frances Crane [4 deaths] (5/23/26)
110. The Six Iron Spiders by Phoebe Atwood Taylor [2 deaths] (5/30/26)
111. The Harlot of St. Cecelia's by Darcy Graves [3 deaths] (6/2/26)
112. The Man Who Didn't Fly by Margot Bennett [5 deaths] (6/8/26)
113. A Case of Life & Limb by Sally Smith [4 deaths] (6/11/26)
114. Spellbound by Francis Beeding [6 deaths] (6/13/26)
115. The Case of Cabin 13 by Sam McCarver [18 deaths] (6/14/26)
116. A Particular Eye for Villainy by Ann Granger [2 deaths] (6/17/26)
117. Murder in the Mystery Suite by Ellery Adams [3 deaths] (6/23/26)
118. Murder on Fleet Street by Lee Strauss [3 deaths] (6/23/26)
119. A Conspiracy of Poisons by J. G. Jeffreys [6 deaths] (6/28/26)
120. The Eve of the Wedding by Lionel Black [2 deaths] (6/30/26)
121. Winds of Evil by Arthur W. Upfield [7 deaths] (7/7/26)
122. Murder at Brighton Beach by Lee Strauss [4 deaths] (7/9/26)
123. DeKok & the Somber Nude by A. C. Baantjer [2 deaths] (7/10/26)
124. Murder in Hyde Park by Lee Strauss [one death] (7/13/26)
125.
Thanks again for the promo, Bev! We welcome new examiners to the morgue at any time, there are plenty of bodies to be processed. Those with a morbid sense of curiousity can peek in the 2025 morgue at http://rickmillsproject.com/reading_challenges/medical_examiner/2025/index.html . New examiners are always welcome and can receive their very own real Toe Tags to use as bookmarks, or to tie on unsuspecting people at the beach.
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