On "A Friendly Game" by Stephen D. Rogers (2135 words) ***

There are a certain number of clichés about private detectives in fiction. One of them is that they work alone and, as such, are also notorious loners, men (or possibly women) who live on the margins of society, not really part of mainstream culture and not really part of the underworld. Rogers works with that cliché in this story, but what is different here is that this isn't a straight-up mystery. In fact, the only real mystery seems to be why he's chosen to write about this incident at all--until you get about two-thirds of the way in. It's just a regular day for our lonely detective, save that someone invites him to a ballgame. That's right--someone is actually friendly to him. Be suspicious. Be very suspicious. Read the story here at Thrilling Detective.