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Looking for a steady supply of mystery short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

150+ Mystery Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. No need to go out hunting for clues — you’ve solved the puzzle of where to find the newest mystery short stories just by landing on this page.

Mystery Short Stories – Page 2 of 10

The Diary of Ellen Becker

Submitted to Contest #310

(This story contains sensitive content. It alludes to sexual violence and abuse) Acknowledgements Special Thanks to the Salt Lake City and Santa Fe police departments in the aid of the investigation of my sister Ruby Becker (Diana Maxwell). Your dedication to this case has returned her remains to her family so that she may be laid to rest in her hometown cemetery where her loved ones may mourn her. Perhaps my journal entries would have been able to help much sooner… Dedication This is for you my dear Ruby…I know Diana to many. A Collect...

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Pandora's Journal

Submitted to Contest #310

A brass bell rings against the thrift shop's glass door as I step into the musty smell of a rather dull building. A middle-aged woman in blue jeans and a matching jacket mumbles a “welcome” without looking up from the pages of her book. I step further inside with a small nod. I'm met with the sight of many ancient materials filling the room from wall to wall. Everything appears to be a different shade of brown. Tarnished golds and silvers line most of the wooden antiques, and plenty of knick-knacks fill the spaces in between. Through the clu...

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The Liminal Spot

Submitted to Contest #310

Hugo Galloway hadn't been seen in three days. In that time, the canals that ran through Manchester had grown thick and dark as ink. The autumn was always unpleasant in the northern half of England, the October sky typically filled with storms that crackled and roiled with rain, but this week was dry. They had nothing but heavy gray clouds with dark bellies. It was as if the rain were afraid to fall. The folks on the street knew nothing about the why of it all, would have denied it if they were told, but they knew something was wrong. None bu...

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THE BINDING SECRET

Submitted to Contest #310

In the sleepy town of GreyStone Hollow, where fog curled through cobble stone streets and secrets lingered like the smell of old pages, Clementine Voss ran "The Hidden Chapter," an indie bookstore nestled between a bakery and an antiques shop. Her clientele were loyal, quirky and devoted to stories-but none as enigmatic as the man who walked in that Friday afternoon. He wore a faded green coat and asked for The Drowned Ledger, a book Clementine kept locked in a glass case. It wasn't for sale-not really. It was a relic tied to the still-unsol...

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Did it for you

Submitted to Contest #310

Marksville, Texas1996 Being a librarian is not the most glamorous of jobs, but in a town like Marksville, there aren’t many options. Each day is almost exactly the same, and today would be no exception. I’ve grabbed my just okay coffee, and I can already see the little brick building in the distance. Setting my belongings down at my desk, I begin preparing everything before the first customers arrive. “Mornin’, Moira!” A boisterous voice calls out from the back room. There is only one other person who would be here earlier than I. “Hey ...

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The Elite

Submitted to Contest #310

The Elite by Lily DeVille.Raymond Beddows surveyed his fellow writers in the crowded room; his eyebrow slightly raised in a condescending expression. These people regarded themselves as authors, some published, some not. He, however, considered himself a literary genius. With eight best sellers to his name, and many articles published in a variety of quality magazines, his confidence in his career as an author was unchallenged. Being of average height and build, he was nevertheless a man who stood out in a crowd, with a shock of neatly trimm...

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Refraction, Reflection

Submitted to Contest #310

Government File: MysteryStatus: UnsolvedClearance Level: Level 10DO NOT PUBLISH, DO NOT COPYCLASSIFIED June 5, 2023 I see existence in a mirror. No, that’s not right. I see existence in a mirror that I see in a glass of water. Let me explain. When an object enters water, the light shining on that object refracts in such a way that the object looks bent or twisted out of place. It’s not, of course, but that’s what it looks like. I see existence kind of like that, only the object in the water is a ...

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Burn This Book

Submitted to Contest #310

Δολοφονία* ForwardThis book is transcribed by hand. If you possess this book, then you know that you are a part of a rare group. This book is to serve one purpose only.If you have found this book without instructions, destroy this book. Burn it. Do not turn the page. You will regret the day you read this forward even if you follow my directions. There are things about this book that can only be explained to you by a previous owner. When he is finished with the book, he will know exactly who should inherit it. He will know what to tell you.If...

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The future is what you want it to be

Submitted to Contest #310

Chapter OneDenise’s heart pounded a rhythm of triumph against her ribs. One year. One relentless, ambition-fueled year since tossing her graduation cap in the air, and now, it was hers. The promotion to Director of Architecture and Design at Sky View Designs Miami wasn’t just a new title; it was the gleaming key to the life she’d dreamed into existence. She practically floated, imagining the look on her fiancé’s face, already anticipating the intimate, irreplaceable gift only he could bestow in celebration. That promotion was her one-way tic...

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The Murder at Fourmile Farm

Submitted to Contest #310

“Excuse me, Sir. Do you have a book on Fourmile Farm?”The visitor seemed to be diffident about interrupting me but honestly, I want to sell books, not organize the shelves. She was an older woman, not the typical ghoul who wanted to relive the spicy aspects of the murder. I wondered if she was a local, or perhaps a relative from out of town.“You mean about the murder? There’s a book by a local author that gives all the details, along with a couple of likely explanations. Is that the kind of thing you want?”She winced at my description. Possi...

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Sunken City of the Saco

Submitted to Contest #310

NOTE BEFORE READING: This story explores themes that some may find distressing. It includes depictions of long-term grief and trauma, psychological manipulation, kidnapping, and scenes of physical violence. Please proceed with care. The bookshop was a mausoleum of paper and dust, a quiet monument to a love of stories Elias Thorne had inherited from his older sister, Eleanor. Ten years she’d been gone, vanished like a character from one of the folklore books she’d adored, leaving Elias the sole keeper of her legacy and the struggling busine...

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The Rewrite

Submitted to Contest #310

The first time, Eli didn't even notice. He slumped over his shattered desk, his work area cluttered with half-full cups of coffee and rejection letters crumpled along the edges. The cursor on the computer screen was blinking mockingly. For the tenth time that night, he read the sentence through: She found the lost ring buried under the floorboards, where she'd always thought it would be. He sighed. Too tidy. Too step-by-step. But it was 2:47 a.m., and deadlines weren't interested in the quality of literature. He saved it, shut his laptop, an...

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The Vanishing Guides

Submitted to Contest #310

Margot owned The Gilded Page, a quaint bookstore tucked away on a cobbled side street, its windows brimming with antique tomes and sun-faded poetry. Patrons knew Margot as quiet and clever, the sort of person who could find you the right book even if you could not name it. It has been a family business since her great-grandfather opened in the 1880s. But what no one else knew—what not even her closest friends suspected—was that behind a shelf of encyclopedias, a hidden door led to a room that had belonged, for generations, to the secret soci...

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The Murder Mystery Writers Club

Submitted to Contest #310

Maryanne received an email from her town’s library inviting her to join the next meeting of the Murder Mystery Writers Club. Hmm, interesting. I don’t remember asking to join it.She remembered that she had asked if there was such a thing, having read about a similar group in the town’s local paper. However, there was no time or day of the week listed for a meeting, so she decided to wait until her next visit to the library to ask about any writer’s club they might have.Maryanne had been writing short stories and novellas for three years and ...

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The Story That Shouldn’t Have Been Read… Until Now

Submitted to Contest #310

The Story That Shouldn’t Have Been Read… Until Now When I finally pressed “publish,” I had no ending in mind. I’d stitched this story together over twenty-four frenetic months—rough sentences scrawled on coffee-stained napkins, creased receipts, the backs of old court filings. Every fragment was soaked in midnight panic, swollen with grief so raw it clawed at my throat, laced with an anger I tasted on my tongue. It was, I told myself, pure invention. A safe exorcism about the day my little sister, Callie, vanished without a trace. I didn’t p...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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