Martin Ross

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2021

Stories (31)

31 Stories

716 karma pts

?

“Gossip Grill: A Mike Dodge Nosh” by Martin Ross

WARNING: Oh my, language. “Tonight, seven hometown food trucks will serve up street-side treats and gourmet gossip to compete for a state-of-the-art mobile kitchen and $50,000 to help make their culinary dreams come true…”“I thought you hated reality shows,” Sarah commented, and I jumped, half out of surprise, half from shame.“I despise them – the bane of modern pop culture,” I responded, defensively. “But this is a food thing.”Sarah yawned and shook her head. “Of course it is. Crank it d...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Curb Service: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

Sarah used to wonder why a trek to the Walgreen’s for a bottle of Claritin a quarter mile across and a quarter mile up took me 90 minutes. I’d patiently explain that the stockboy’d gotten dumped by text the night previous, the cashier was struggling with her master’s thesis on social context in Elizabethan lit, and the chip vendor had never even heard of Only Murders or Detroiters, and she’d volunteer to pick up her own allergy meds the next time and ask had she put Midnight Taco Doritos on my list. It ...

12 comments 12
Read story

“The Last Hippie: A Mike Dodge Trip” by Martin Ross

DISCLAIMER: The last hippie, the stairway prof, the Alien/donut episode, and EWF are based in reality. You reason out what isn’t. C’mon…“Do you remember?The 21st night of September?Love was changing the minds of pretendersWhile chasing the clouds away…”Tune was actually released the 21st day of November, 1978 – Earth, Wind, and Fire were ruled by market rather than (as one might suspect) natural forces. But what’s a coupl...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Las Mujeres ” by Martin Ross

“You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore." — Cesar Chavez2014Dodge struggled to focus on his lesson plan during the Tuesday morning trek to Phoenix. “Sister” Frieda had permanently assigned him shotgun, and an obligatory period of cautious small talk was de rigueur.By the time Frieda’s Mercedes negotiated the I-60 West ram...

9 comments 9
Read story

“Non Compos Mentor: Tinkering Part 4” by Martin Ross

"What is the fundamental difference between the natural and the supernatural? What is the essential characteristic of magic?" George R. Price "Science and the Supernatural," Science, August 26, 1955 2014 “Feel better?” Reynolds growled lazily, sipping noisily at his Viente Americano. Danzer c...

8 comments 8
Read story

“Another Life: A Mike Dodge Tale” by Martin Ross

“The only problem with your murder theory,” Dr. Deshpande suggested, “is the absence of murder in any form.”“Not in the traditional sense, maybe,” I countered.“If by the ‘traditional sense, you mean caused to die at the hands of another, neither by accident nor the transmission of disease, then I’d be interested to know in what innovative and exotic manner you believe Mr. Rawalpindi died. There is no doubt whatsoever that Arjun was the victim of anaphylactic shock resulting from an insect sting?”“No…” I admitted. That...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Everything Possible: A Curtis Mead Story” by Martin Ross

“I need to confess,” the woman stated.It was on the bright side of 11 a.m.: Curtis Mead had been called out on an early morning shooting downtown just as he’d brought the needle down on his New Zealand Dark Roast pod. After seeing the body off, after questioning the half-dozen white-collar witnesses and destitute spectators who’d set out early for coffee or coffee money, after officiously but diplomatically telling the local media to find a private corner for self-fornication until the sun had at least crossed over the Courthouse d...

4 comments 4
Read story

“The Adventure of the Turret Goner: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

Gadzooks: Strong language. “Ah, Holmes…” my trusty sidekick murmured.“Yes, Watson?”“So you’re Holmes, now?” Det. Curtis Mead mused. “I’M the sidekick? You want to oversee the evidence collection, maybe question the suspects? Wouldn’t mind you wanted to do the paperwork after this shit’s done. And swear to God, if you call me Lestrade…”“Didn’t know you were a Doyle fan.”“And just why not?” I was skating near the polar bear end of the ice. “Mu...

9 comments 9
Read story

“The Mc’ler’s Tribute” by Martin Ross

Dedicated to Russell Mickler, the forger of fantasy and fancy, whose tales of the intrepid and virtuous halflings and their neighboring realms deserve so much more than a Tolkien glance. Russley planted his broad quarterling rump in his beloved Lazyboar recliner, caressing the bristly but somehow supple upholstery he himself had crafted after battling the great beast Porkham to reclaim the Dar...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Short Stuck: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

“…So of course, I got the short end of the stick once again.”“What’s that even mean?” I asked.Jay blinked, and stabbed a fry into his Heinz. “What do you mean, what’s that mean?”“Literally. Or I guess metaphorically. A stick is a stick – it has no long or short end.”“It’s just an expression,” Jay muttered. “You want me to be a little plainer? There’s soccer moms next door.”That he’d been leering at the millennial school-day lunch bunch since “I’m Erin” had recited the lunch specials, rendered his sensiti...

5 comments 5
Read story

“Stewed Over: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

It’s the thought that counts.Wonder what Albert Einstein might have made of that one. Would he have dropped quantum theory and devoted his life to crafting fine sachertortes and punschkrapfens? We’d all still know his kindly, fuzzy mug from the Harry and David’s fall catalogue, but we’d gobble Al’s pastries for that “little taste of prewar Vienna” rather than to assuage our postwar nuclear angst.I wouldn’t have entertained that thought if I hadn’t been hangry when I ran into Deanngela Hofstra at the Gemm’s Mart. St....

5 comments 5
Read story

“Mine Craft: A Mike Dodge Intrigue” by Martin Ross

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.My apple trees will never get acrossAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’"Mending Wall"Robert FrostMost folks believe Robert Frost was a big wall guy. But verse is an iffy basis for popular discourse, especially hereabouts where poetry is for eighth graders and the Hallmark Store and the occasional bar band that actually buys that the Friday crowd is ...

27 comments 27
Read story

“Karakuri-Netsuke: A Mike Dodge Minimystery” by Martin Ross

Seth Waldron’s living room was overpopulated with hares and dogs and mice and octopi and dragons and spirits and skeletons and not a few couples engaged in eternal copulation.“Ah, you’ve found the shunga,” the master of the house breathed behind me. Dad had a 30-year run of National Geographics shelved in the new bedroom I demanded at nine, and it didn’t take long for me to develop a literal Indiana jones for the more fascinating anatomical aspects of sub-tropical anthropology. I couldn’t feign studying the use of cowrie s...

38 comments 38
Read story

“Mum: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

“Well,” the elfin gift shop volunteer reflected. “I suppose it depends.”There are three basic types of hospital volunteers. She was the third variety, and so came around the counter to peer at Ecumena’s meager floral selection.“Frankly, a nice houseplant provides a positive life force, and do you know, I read somewhere that a tropical like a spider plant can purify the air in the room?” “Verna” related, almost breathlessly.“My wife wanted something more, ah, ornamental,” I smiled, almost apologetically. She patted me ...

7 comments 7
Read story

“Jeff and Gina's Wedding: A Mike Dodge Mystery” by Martin Ross

“Speak now, or forever hold your peace.”I immediately shifted for a look-around. Sarah’s fingers, resting softly on my right paw, constricted into a vice I might not have anticipated from one who forced me to scientifically document her lunchtime fats and calories.Just as Sarah’s tender(er) mode had activated the second the organ sounded the bride’s approach, my Pavlovian adolescence kicks in when I hear those words followed by even the slightest rustling or throat-clearing. In film – or at least the genre of film ...

16 comments 16
Read story

Author bio

I was a reporter and federal policy writer for 33 years, and have been a mystery lover since I discovered Ellery Queen in the Cruft Elementary library more than 50 years ago. I love the classic, fairplay mystery, and as a community volunteer, I hope to meld that tradition with contemporary issues and concerns and, ideally, humor — for lack of a better term, the “dude cozy.”