Artie and the Long-Legged Woman

The Artie Crimes #1

by Jan Christensen

When Artie Applegate meets his friend's mother after a long time with no contact, he recognizes Mrs. Henderson because of her incredible long legs. But Artie's pleasure at seeing them--her--again is dashed when she insists he persuade her son to break up with his current girlfriend. If Artie doesn't, then the video Mrs. Henderson captured of him burglarizing her jewelry store will end up at the police station.

With that threat hanging over his head, Artie sets out to become reacquainted with his old friend, Henry, meets Henry's easily angered lover, and tries to figure out a way to break up the relationship. It will take all his professional skills and imagination to do so, and even then, things don't turn out exactly as he envisioned. But Artie is used to that.

First in a new mystery short story series.

14 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 9, 2011

About the author

Some short stories written by Jan Christensen began to appear in print magazines in the mid-to-late-90s. By this century, more appeared in both print and ezines, and now her list of published stories is over seventy. She‘s been nominated for two Derringer Awards, and one story from Hardluck Stories has been published in an anthology edited by Dave Zeltserman and Ed Gorman titled, On Dangerous Ground.

In 2004, one of her novels, Sara’s Search, was published and is now available on Kindle. After that, eleven more mystery books have been published. And she continues to persist.

Reviews

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I'm in love! Artie, why couldn't you really exist, you conniving thief, you. Unfortunately, even if you were a real live person, I'm sure I wouldn't fit the bill. No long legs here. Could I maybe win you over with a smile? I'd love to have those jewels you steal in my hands, even if just for a few minutes. I admit, I would be overly worried that you would get nicked by the po-po though. Now that would make for many a sleepless nights.

In case you couldn't tell, Artie is a jewel thief. And maybe even a computer thief. And from what this short story tells us, he's a damn good one. Even when he gets caught red-handed. Somehow or another he gets tangled up in the breaking up of a relationship. It's his newest task and has no clue how he's going to master this one. But true to his word, he pulls off his latest heist.

This short story was very amusing and was full of entertaining characters. Even the long-legged lady is a likable one, however brief her part in the story was. I admit, I never saw the ending coming. I don't think Artie saw it coming either. I crave more Artie stories so it's a good thing I have one more in reserve.