Tom Kidd’s “Grantville Gumshoe in The Pre-enactor Murder” is a special treat. Tom takes a break from his Baen Books 1632 series cover artist duties to bring us a hard-boiled detective story, a murder case involving Grantville’s Civil War re-enactors. Our hero is a self-made down-time gumshoe who learned his trade from up-time detective movies, novels, and magazines. Will he solve the murder and find the hidden time machine that brought Grantville to the past? Stay tuned!

A young widow is being forced to waste away in a convent only because she is an inconvenience to her cold-hearted in-laws. Can she be rescued by a couple of very eligible bachelors? Will the wedding bells ring? Find out in Virginia DeMarce’s “Here or There?”!

Down-timer NESS security agent Astrid Schäubin encounters up-time Tejana horsewoman Alyse Ballantine. The two women from vastly different times and places strike up a friendship in Sarah Hays’ “Driving Force.”

A proud young samurai returns to the site of a deadly crime against his family and people seeking vengeance. His quest begins in Garrett W. Vance’s “Our Man Hiuchi.” (The Rice Farmer’s Daughter And The Samurai (1632 & Beyond Issue 9) is the previous story, link below.)

Edith Wild’s “Come Dig My Earth” is the fifth installment in the saga of Amalia, a young girl who has suffered severe bullet wounds during a murderous home invasion. Now she is in surgery while an unlikely duo investigates alongside Grantville’s law enforcement.