Thu 19 Dec 2019
Mystery Stories I’m Reading: BRYNN BONNER “Jangle.”
Posted by Steve under Collecting , Stories I'm Reading[5] Comments
BRYNN BONNER “Jangle.” Novelette. Session Seabolt #1. First appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May 2007.
Many of you, and I’m willing to wage a majority of you, are collectors of one thing or another: books, magazines, records, DVDs, comic books, Lego sets, Star Wars toys, whatever. And even if you’re not, I think you can identify with those of us who do haunt library sales, old used book and record stores, tag sales (garage sales, perhaps, where you live), hoping that the next place you visit will be The One.
Such is the case in this short tale. Session Seabolt is the owner of a used record store, and when she’s not in the shop, she loves to go browsing all of the garage sales in the area:
[…]
My hands shook as I tucked the album into the middle of the stack I had set aside and hugged them to my chest, hoping nobody had noticed my reaction.
[…]
I nodded and stretched the smile wider, feeling a snake of guilt slithering up my spine. The man had no clue what he had.
It’s happened to me. I know the feeling. The author (not her real name) has nailed it perfectly.
What Session has found is almost irrelevant at this point, but since I’m sure you’d like to know — I know I was, and Ms Bonner puts off telling us for as long as she can. An early pressing of Bob Dylan’s first LP, the one containing several tracks that didn’t appear on the version finally released to the public. Some of the early ones did get into circulation, and they’re worth thousands of dollars.
To assuage her guilt, Session also takes an old stereo set, complete with turntable and speakers. I might have done the same.
The rest of the story is not nearly as good as the beginning — it gets a little too complicated, and I don’t think I need to go into it. Well, here’s a hint: it has more to do with the other stuff she bought than the Dylan LP. I’ve told all there is to know about the really good part.
—
PostScript: According the introductory notes, this was to be the first of series. It was, but the second known Session Seabolt story didn’t come along until “Final Vinyl,” which appeared in the Sept-Oct 2012 issue of EQMM.
December 21st, 2019 at 12:32 am
Collectors guilt, it is a unique mix of pure joy, absolute greed, sheer terror it might just be a dream, and the tiny teeny weeniest tinge of guilt that you have found treasure among someone else dross.
December 21st, 2019 at 10:13 am
That sums it up, in three lines.
December 24th, 2019 at 2:29 am
Ellen Harris is cited as her pseudonym at her Simon and Schuster page. “Brynn Bonner grew up in Alabama and is a long-time resident of North Carolina. Both her literary fiction [sic] and mysteries reflect the landscapes and the genuine people of her southern heritage. Bonner currently pens the Family History Mystery series for Pocket Books. Writing as Ellen Harris, Bonner wrote six books for the Mysteries of Sparrow Island series published by Guidepost Books. Her short stories have been featured in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Now and Then, Crossroads, and other publications.
December 24th, 2019 at 9:18 pm
Thanks, Todd. Obviously I didn’t do as much Google investigating as I meant to. A little more searching reveals that neither Brynn Bonner nor ellen Harris are the author’s real name. It’s Brenda Witchger, and here’s her webpage:
https://brendawitchger.wordpress.com/bio/
I wish she’d written more tales about Session Seabolt, but realistically, how many mystery stories can the owner of a used record store get into?
December 25th, 2019 at 10:16 am
Thank you, in turn…I didn’t dig deeply enough, either…Brenda Witchger shall soon be cited in FFB, too.