Artie and the Red-Headed Woman

The Artie Crimes #2

by Jan Christensen

It's Christmastime in New York, and with a fresh stash of watches and fine jewelry in his athletic bag, Artie is riding the bus home. A red-headed woman across the aisle catches his attention, particularly since she seems so sad and so familiar. When the bus has engine trouble and the cops arrive, Artie and the woman both have urgent reasons to get away as fast as they can, Artie with his stash and Gina from her father, an old friend of Artie's. All is not what it seems with Gina, and the Christmas season brings more surprises wrapped up in the beautiful red-headed woman than Artie ever expected.This is the second installment in The Artie Crimes short story series.

14 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 19, 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 wonder how many short stories Artie can star in? Thus far, in the two I have read, he does a pretty spectacular job of making you love him. He has a heart of gold and a very large soft spot for women. He also appears to run into a lot of "old friends". Let whoever the gods may be never allow Artie to run out of these friends for they make excellent stories.

Artie bumps into an old friend's little girl. Only she's grown up now. And crying on a bus. He takes her under his wing hoping he can finally talk some sense into her father. Unfortunately, the last laugh is actually on Artie.

I learned a wee bit more about Artie in this one. He truly is a sucker for the gals. He would even risk his own arrest to ensure the well-being of someone from the female persuasion. He's such a charmer! I'm still in love with Artie as much as I was in the first short story. Maybe even a bit more. His wife, Josie, is a lucky lady. But even she tends to make me love her (especially after rescuing a kitten!) and I find I am not jealous of her at all. Okay, I lied. Maybe a little bit jealous. But just a tad.