S.E. (Stephen Edward) Greco was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs. He moved to New York’s Hudson Valley where he worked as a physicist and engineer at a major technology company before turning his attention to writing. His mystery, suspense, humor, and sci-fi stories have appeared recently in the magazines/e-zines: Suspense Magazine, The Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine, The Literary Hatchet, Scarlet Leaf Review, Bards and Sages, The Society of Misfit Stories, Mysterical-E, and in the anthologies: Suspense Unimagined, Strange Stories, and Going Down Swinging: Pigeonholed. His work has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize anthology and he was a runner-up for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2020 Derringer Award for best mystery novelette, for his entry I Called to Say You’re Dead (published in The Society of Misfit Stories). He also received honorable mention in a 2020 writer’s grant contest hosted by the Speculative Literature Foundation for his story As Good as My Brother (published in Bards and Sages). His first novel, a mystery/thriller titled A Patient Enemy, was released by Moonshine Cove Publishing on 8/8/22. His second novel, a comedic mystery called Downsized or Dead, was released by The Wild Rose Press on 2/6/23. Both novels are for sale on Amazon and other major platforms.
Steve is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers, the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. He currently lives in New York and divides his time between writing, reading, and oil painting.
All my life I’ve enjoyed reading mystery, suspense, and detective stories with interesting, flawed characters and unexpected twists that left me thinking I should’ve been able to figure out the ending. If some of my stories or novels entertain you in the same way, then I’ve achieved my goal.
S.E. Greco
Read an interview with S.E.Greco in The River Journal:
Local Authors, Local Books: Engineering a Second Career as Novelist
S.E.Greco’s novel, Downsized or Dead, is available on Amazon and other major platforms.
Read the first chapter of this exciting novel for free.
June Bloom feels that her job as a low-level manager at the Fleener Plastics company can’t get much worse as she tries to navigate the absurdity and stress of corporate life and deal with her incompetent and sexist boss. But her life gets crazy when one of her employees goes missing, and a colleague who’s a self-proclaimed psychic gets a vision of the man’s dead body lying in the trunk of an unknown car. June is stunned to learn that her missing employee, Melvin, has been using a false identity and is due to inherit a fortune from his estranged and dying father. She has strong doubts about the psychic vision, but even greater misgivings about Melvin’s weird wife, a sexy Romanian internet bride with a bad temper. June soon comes to suspect that a scary ex-military man whom she was forced to fire at work might be involved in the kidnapping or murder. But she never expected it all to end with a gun pointed at her head.
STORIES
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Anytime You Need Me
Axel Riggs is a private detective with a talent for safe cracking who works in Los Angeles circa 1955. When he pays his ex-wife a visit after she requests a larcenous favor, he quickly learns that he has to stay on top of his game to get what he really wants. (about 2900 words, 15 mins to read).
First published in The Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine, April 2018
Where’s Daddy?
A mother is unnerved when her very observant five-year-old boy notices blood on the floor and on the lock of their large cedar chest. He asks why his Daddy is nowhere to be found. (about 3000 words, 15 mins to read)
First published in J.J.Outre Review, May 2021
I Called to Say You’re Dead
After being approached by the mob to collect on his deadbeat brother’s debt, a man comes up with what seems like a simple plan to resolve his problem. But then his sleazy accomplices decide to put the squeeze on him, threatening to blow up his scheme. (about 15,500 words, an hour and a quarter to read)
First published in The Society of Misfit Stories, Sept 2019; Runner-up for The Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2020 Derringer award for best mystery novelette.
The Deliverance of Walter Grace
A nervous and insecure man named Walter takes an excursion on a charter fishing boat from the Florida Keys. When the boat is far offshore, it becomes evident to the captain that Walter has no interest in fishing, but instead has come to take care of something that’s bothered him for many years. (about 4,500 words, 20 mins to read)
First published in The Literary Hatchet, issue#20, May 2018
The Protector
A naive eighteen-year-old’s first love affair is with the wife of a hated high school teacher. The young man’s discovery that she is being physically abused leads him to contemplate the teacher’s murder. (about 13,500 words, an hour to read).
First published in The Society of Misfit Stories, Feb 2019
Not Easy to Forget
An elderly, wheelchair-bound man faces questions about his involvement in a decades old unsolved crime that occurred on Cape Cod: the disappearance of a teenage girl. (about 5,000 words, 25 mins to read)
First published in Suspense Unimagined, 2018.
The Crazies Out There
A man becomes increasingly paranoid about the everyday dangers which he routinely faces. As he withdraws from society to protect himself, the consequences are both disturbing and pathetic. (about 1,000 words, 5 mins to read)
First published in The Literary Hatchet, issue #21, Sept 2018
The Best Revenge
A woman asks a friend to help her seek revenge against a man who jilted her in college by luring him into a relationship on a dating website. (about 4,000 words, 20 mins to read).
First published in The Literary Hatchet, Issue #20, May 2018
Where’s Daddy?
A mother is unnerved when her very observant five-year-old boy notices blood on the floor and on the lock of their large cedar chest. He asks why his Daddy is nowhere to be found. (about 3000 words, 15 mins to read)
First published in J.J.Outre Review, May 2021
Oh, Rats
A young boy named Harvey faces his worst fear when he unwisely accepts a dare from his buddies to walk into a dark drainage pipe and emerge from the other end. (about 3,000 words, 15 mins to read)
First published in Scarlet Leaf Review, Feb 2019
A Stroll in the Forest
A young woman’s solo hike in the forest is cut short when a bear destroys her campsite. Uninjured but now without food, water, equipment, or even a trail map, she must place her complete trust in another woman hiking alone who happens by and offers assistance. But as they hike together and converse, the young woman begins to doubt that her rescuer is leading her on a path out of the wilderness to safety.
First published in The Literary Hatchet, Issue #31, May 2022
You’ll Wish You Were Dead
When a man sitting on a park bench accuses a stranger passing by of murder and demands money in return for his silence, a game of wits ensues which tests each man’s nerve and resolve. (about 5,000 words, 25 mins to read)
First published in The Literary Hatchet, issue #24, Nov 2019
As Good as My Brother
A seven-year-old girl named Natalie wanders a dying and nearly deserted world with her older brother after an unknown disaster has decimated the planet. She has a minimal understanding of what has befallen them as her brother shields her from a true understanding of the constant dangers they face. But when they encounter a stranger on the road who wants to trade some of his food for Natalie, it may be time for her to learn about killing to survive. (about 4,500 words, 20 mins to read)
First published in Bards and Sages Quarterly, January 2021
Out With a Bang
Diagnosed with a terminal illness, a lonely man decides to take care of one last bit of business before leaving this earth: Murder the person who mercilessly bullied him many years ago in school. (about 3,000 words, 15 mins to read).
First published in Suspense Magazine, Sept/Oct 2017
The Prayer Collective
Sci-Fi! Far in the future, the powerful and influential Terran Church of the One True Deity enslaves a contingent of millions of aliens on a Jovian moon to continuously recite prayers. When the aliens make demands that pose a threat to meeting the prayer quotas, an Ambassador who is secretly an agnostic is called in to settle the dispute, with disquieting consequences.
First Published in Strange Stories, volume 1, Dec 2019
Let Them Eat Cake
Flash fiction!
What does it mean when a man is curiously undisturbed by his mother’s tragic death? (about 350 words, only 2 mins to read!)
First published in Mysterical-e, August 2022
Anytime You Need Me
Axel Riggs is a private detective with a talent for safe cracking who works in Los Angeles circa 1955. When he pays his ex-wife a visit after she requests a larcenous favor, he quickly learns that he has to stay on top of his game to get what he really wants. (about 2900 words, 15 mins to read).
First published in The Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine, April 2018
Cereal Drama
When a man finds an unexpected prize in his cereal, he decides to contact the manufacturer to complain. (about 1,000 words, 5 mins to read)
First published in Going Down Swinging: Pigeonholed, 2018
No Safe Haven
A beat cop is haunted by disturbing dreams of his dead wife, whom he misses dearly. She speaks to him, seemingly to warn him of something, but he is unable to understand her. His anxieties come to a head when he enters a dark apartment building to investigate a domestic disturbance. (about 5,000 words, 25 mins to read)
First published in The Literary Hatchet, Issue #20, May 2018
A Bump in the Road
A husband and wife in a troubled marriage are traveling along a dark country road at night when they feel a bump, as if they’d hit something crawling in the road. Only one of them wants to turn back to see if they might have struck a person. (about 6,000 words, 30 mins to read)
First published in The Literary Hatchet, Issue #21, Sept 2018
S.E.Greco’s first novel, A Patient Enemy, is available on Amazon and other major platforms.
Read the first chapter of this exciting novel for free.
A master criminal who’s also a passionate art lover.
A long-lost painting by Johannes Vermeer.
A completely green and very young private investigator hired to find a missing art professor by a wife whose motives are suspect.
And two police detectives investigating an unidentified corpse pulled up from the depths by a fisherman.
Near the shores of Lake George in upstate New York, a mystery is taking shape and the person trying to solve it, Harvey Grace, has no idea who he can trust.
