Welcome to the latest issue of The Big Click. We have some distressing news to start—columnist Tom Piccirilli has been experiencing some health problems as of late, and his physicians found a tennis ball-sized tumor in his brain. Surgery to remove it was successful, but the situation remains touch and go both medically and financially. Pic is a full-time freelancer, after all. There is hope. A fund-raising endeavor via Indiegogo raised over $20,000 for Pic’s medical expenses, and two of Pic’s publishers have stepped forward. Ebook publisher Crossroads Press is donating all proceeds from their Pic titles, purchased through their storefront, directly to him for the rest of the year. ChiZine Publications, the publisher of Pic’s amazing novella Every Shallow Cut, is doing the same for the ebook edition of the book, when purchased via its storefront. The Big Click’s editors have also donated what we could to Pic’s expenses.

Our non-fiction piece this issue is from poet and editor Daphne Gottlieb. Gottlieb’s latest book, Dear Dawn: Aileen Wuornos in Her Own Words, is a collection of jailhouse letters from the notorious figure who has been called “the first female serial killer,” but who claimed to only kill in self-defense. Gottlieb’s essay in this issue is as evocative and challenging as her award-winning poetry, and we think you’ll be shaken up by it, at the very least.

Our political engagement continues with “Lost and Found” by Andrea Gibbons, which details the adventures of a private detective/guerilla. Gibbons also co-edited the wonderful crime anthology Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail: Stories of Crime, Love and Rebellion. Ray Banks, author of the Cal Innes series of PI novels, brings us “Bluebeard’s Ghost,” which might just be a touching love story … if not for all the blood.

We hope you enjoy this issue, and come on back in January, when we hope to have good news bout Tom Piccirilli, and more great crime fiction from the best writers in the world.