donalee's short stories

ALLO VERA

Published in: British Bump Off

Coming to: Queen's Quarterly in Fall 2026

ANOMIE

Published in: Cottage Crimes

A private detective on a quiet surveillance job expects boredom, birds, and beach days. Instead, she uncovers a sophisticated cocaine pipeline hiding behind an idyllic family and a perfect summer cottage.

BELTED KINGFISHER

When a sharp-tongued teenager receives anonymous threats, Ruth Harper—seller of sex toys and retired lawyer—is pulled into a case that tangles high school grudges with organized crime.

BON AMI

GOOSE

Published in: Dalhousie Review; Reach for the Stars: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology

At a carefully planned family dinner, an unfamiliar main course exposes the tensions of a marriage in limbo. As perspectives shift around the table, small gestures, loaded silences, and unspoken ambitions reveal how power, pride, and control shape what families say.

I KILLED WYATT MCCORD

Published in: Black Cat Weekly

JACKDAW

Published in: Saturday Evening Post

When a valuable fossil disappears from a university lab, private investigator Em Montgomery is drawn into a case involving academic ambition, institutional blind spots, and an eight-year-old with a passion for paleontology.

LAISSEZ LES BONS TEMPS ROULER

Published in: The Perp Wore Pumpkin II

At a New Orleans “Naughty and Nice” party, a former lawyer turned sex-toy sales rep expects laughter and easy commissions—not a missing diamond ring.

MALADAPTIVES ANONYMOUS

Published in: Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers

MANNEQUIN

Published in: Four Corners Writers; Queen's Quarterly

A woman notices that someone, or something, is watering her house plants and undertakes to find out who or what is doing so.

Published in: After Dinner Conversation; Beautiful Darkness; Chicka-Chicka Boomba; Kings River Life Magazine; MetaStellar; Santa Cruz Ghost Stories; Strangers in the Fog; The Antigonish Review; Thriller Magazine

Shortlisted for: Bouchercon 2026 Anthology

Published: Reach for the Stars Anthology; Soliloquies Anthology

Published: Black Cat Weekly

Published: JOURN-E: The Journal of Imaginative Literature

Iqaluit police chief Doug Brumal gets a call about a body found at a nearby hotel the third day on the job.

Published in: Black Cat Weekly; Close 2 the Bone; Cold Canadian Crime; Kings River Life Magazine; Malice Domestic Anthology; Mystery Most International

Iqaluit police chief Doug Brumal investigates the case of an environmentalist who ends up dead.

Published in: Black Cat Weekly; Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem: Betrayal: Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem: Criminally Good

Published in: The Most Dangerous Games