"A Summer Mystery - Unofficial Challenge": All The Winners!

I am finally done with double (and in most cases triple) reading all the entries to this challenge, and all I can say is WOW!

This was not an easy challenge, but you guys all did a stellar job. I am especially impressed by the variety of topics.

There've been a few paranormal-themed entries, classic detective stories with a twist, a music-themed detective scavenger hunt, an existential nightmare mystery, the hilarious investigation of a president's ancestry, a wrestling mystery, and a last-minute subversive meta-mystery!

What a ride it's been reading them all!

And while a clear winner emerged already during the second round of reading, the rose of runner-ups for the rest of the podium quickly became too big to handle.

So, being the weirdo I am, I came up with a point system to make my life easier... and the results were not what I expected!

Except for the winner.

The winner was reconfirmed again, with an astonishing 7/5 stars! Here's a screenshot of my point system for all you geeks out there:

As you can see, I decided that missing out on technicalities wasn't a capital sin.

It felt unfair to disqualify someone who put in the effort of plotting and writing a whole story over a small thing like a missing link or subtitle. At the same time, it felt unfair to treat those submissions the same as the ones that put in the effort to iron out the small details, hence the technicalities point.

Another noteworthy thing is that the writing style is scored as way less important than the plot.

This was, after all, a challenge about setting up a good solvable mystery, one that packs a twist that we can't see coming, but, at a second read, reveals plenty of clues.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read all the submissions in the original post:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, for the part you were all waiting for...

Prizes

There were so many awesome stories that I just wanted to reward them all!

But in the rules of the challenge, I announced that prizes would depend on the number of submissions. Namely, 1 prize every 5, and since 13 rounds up to 15, there would be a total of 3 prizes. Boring!

That's when I thought: what the hell, this is my first challenge, let's celebrate together!

Special Prizes:

• Participation Prize: 1$ per submission! That's right, per submission, not per submittant. Am I glad nobody picked me up on that 48 submissions limit!

• Most Prolific Submitter: 1 $ to the author who submitted the most entries. And with three stories each, we have a tie! Shoutout to Julie Lacksonen and Clyde E. Dawkins for their creativity and productivity!

• Shoutout for the "Spirit of the Challenge": There was one entry that embodied the spirit of this challenge tremendously well, and was in that rose of runner-ups we were talking about earlier, but, to my surprise, didn't survive the formula's cold math.

This story invites the reader to hunt down a criminal and solve a mystery together step by step, like a scavenger hunt, and it does so inside an unexpected community: Beat.

Go read and play along with Julie Lacksonen's detective Natasha Brown in:

• Most Surprising Community/Theme: 1$ for mysteries set outside the usual and "safe" fiction/horror/crime/chapters/critique communities.

And we have a three-way tie!

- Starting with Clyde E. Dawkins:

"But Sasha, this submission is inside the "Fiction" community, you're cheating!", you say? It might be... but it could have as well been submitted to the "Unbalanced" community, because Clyde brings us a mystery set on the wrestling ring!

And little Sasha used to be quite a fan of wrestling, so this story hit a sweet spot for me. ❤️

- Continuing with a submission to Humor by Jesse Lee

- And finally, Julie Lacksonen, who packed a mystery inside a haiku:

...are you starting to sense a theme here?

• Queen of the Challenge: Absolute bragging rights go to Julie for the amazing way she tackled this challenge.

Check out her other works:

Traditional Prizes

Now, for the traditional prizes, we'll be sticking to the point system as explained above.

3rd place: 2$ to Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred, who packed an ending I didn't see coming in a brief and lean story. Can't say more without spoilers 😉

2nd place: 3$ to Adam Kolozetti with a last-minute submission that broke the podium, pushing aside the three-way tie for the third spot (the mystery of who would have placed there shall stay unsolved).

The meta-mystery packed a twist I didn't see coming, and I don't care if Adam didn't write this with the idea to win the challenge: a good mystery is still a good mystery!

1st place: 5$ and a shoutout go to... (drumroll GIF taken from Giphy. com)

Our Scottish-Italian subversive master of all trades, Paul Stewart, with "Before Bertie".

This story did everything I asked for and more!

It made me angry after the first read, leaving me thinking:

"How the heck were we supposed to guess that?"

I am usually quite good at following clues and guessing the plot twists of a story, but this left me completely stumped, and I thought it was not a solvable mystery.

But my oh my! The second read was a delight! The hints I missed flourished in front of my eyes, while several red herrings revealed their distracting heads.

"Before Bertie" is a masterful example of just about exactly what a good mystery is.

It doesn't explain; it doesn't hold your hand; it doesn't do the reasoning for you.

And while the ending is unexpected to the point of frustration, all the clues you need to solve the mystery are there (even in the title!!), rendering a second reading even more interesting than the first one.

Also, I said I am a bit of a weirdo, and this entry showed a great understanding of the weird. Thank you for that, Paul! ❤️

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prizes will be disbursed within the next 48 hours, All prizes have been paid out, and I will give each story a third (or fourth) read and leave a comment over the week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for playing, and I hope to see you all in the next challenge!