Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
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Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM) is a monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.
AHMM was founded in 1956 by HSD Publications, which licensed the use of the director's name. Though there was no formal connection with the television show, stories published in the magazine were sometimes adapted by the producers of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (and later, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour). A few writers, such as Henry Slesar, wrote for both. Other contributors during the magazine’s early years included Evan Hunter/Ed McBain, Ed Lacy, Bill Pronzini, Jim Thompson, Donald E. Westlake and Charles Willeford (who briefly worked for the magazine).
In 1975 AHMM was acquired by Davis Publications, Inc., and since 1997 it has been published by Dell Magazines (which also produces its sister publication, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine). Cathleen Jordan edited the magazine from 1981 to 2002, and since then it has been edited by Linda Landrigan. After EQMM, AHMM is the second-longest-running mystery fiction magazine. In 2006, the magazine celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with the publication of the anthology Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense.
Each issue contains original works of short crime or mystery fiction as well as a book review column (“Booked & Printed”), a movie and television column (“Reel Crime”), a puzzle, a “Mysterious Photograph” story contest, and a "Mystery Classic" reprint.
Over its history AHMM has published short fiction by noted mystery novelists such as Robert Bloch, Lawrence Block, G. K. Chesterton, Ron Goulart, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Donald E. Westlake. The magazine has also regularly featured such short story specialists as John H. Dirckx, Kenneth Gavrell, Edward D. Hoch, Jack Ritchie, and Stephen Wasylyk.
Many writers have published their first mystery story in AHMM, including Mitch Alderman, Doug Allyn, Gregory Fallis, Steve Hockensmith, Martin Limon, D. A. McGuire, and I. J. Parker.
In recent years, regular contributors have also included Rhys Bowen, Jan Burke, O'Neil De Noux, John F. Dobbyn, Joan Druett, Brendan DuBois, Loren D. Estleman, David Edgerley Gates, Toni L. P. Kelner, R. T. Lawton, Robert Lopresti, Beverle Graves Myers, Jas R. Petrin, Gilbert M. Stack, Marianne Wilski Strong, Steven Torres, Elaine Viets, James Lincoln Warren, Sarah Weinman, and Mike Wiecek.
In 2007, AHMM joined with The Wolfe Pack, the Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe society, to sponsor the Black Orchid Novella Contest for stories in the “classic detective” style of Stout’s Nero Wolf.
Since 2004, AHMM has had eleven stories as finalists for the Shamus Award presented by the Private Eye Writers of America.
