The Sewing Machine and Other Stories - Paperback

Humor, suspense, crime, and mischief abound in this highly imaginative collection of nine short stories and two novellas. As in his first book, Grandpa Gets a Tattoo and Other Stories (2025), Michael Massee's page-turning stories are rich with unexpected turns, red herrings, and surprise endings.

A mysterious visual disturbance leads to a missing person, then to a shocking revelation. One sewing machine changes three lives-first for an abandoned Mormon wife, then for a talented teenage boy, and finally for a girl in an oppressive Indian boarding school. Difficult questions are asked: How do we relate to a neighbor with an intractable mental illness? Is "mercy killing" ever justified? What if we could choose what happens when we die?

In "Affliction," a crusty, old-time newspaperman meets a warehouse clerk beset by messages from beyond, a midlife crisis, and a very overbearing mother; they team up to solve two mysteries-and along the way reinvigorate their own lives. This collection also serves up a sitcom actor with delusions of grandeur, a teenage Christmas prank gone wrong, a neighborhood murder mystery, crime-fighting birds-and a Great American Novel you can finish in only eight minutes!

Massee's stories are by turns poignant and witty, thoughtful and irreverent, displaying his flair as a natural storyteller.