Congratulations to our MYSTERY winner!

I'll let our guest author Brandt Dodson announce the winner of this week's Mystery Short Story contest in his own words:

"Thank you for allowing me to read the entries. They were all actually quite good. It was difficult to choose.

But, using the criteria for a 'traditional' mystery, I have selected Amy Barkman’s 'Hercule Poirot’s Little Grey Cells.'

I was pleased to see that your readers are also fans of the mystery. Each of the writers of the entries did a magnificent job of capturing the character of their chosen detectives. Each of the writers did a great job of telling a concise, yet engaging mystery in the short span of 1500 words or less. No easy task. And each writer did a superb job of revealing the source of the crime. But in 'Hercule Poirot’s Little Grey Cells,' Amy also included clues as well as the all-important red herrings. Her ability to divert my attention off of the true facts was well done, a strong indicator that she recognizes the essentials of the traditional mystery, and her ultimate revelation was prolonged to a suspense-building conclusion. All-in-all, a great job!"

Special thanks to Brandt Dodson for taking time out of his busy schedule to be our guest this week. If you haven't read THE LOST SHEEP yet, or any of his Colton Parker mysteries, you're missing a real treat!

Congratulations, Amy! And thanks to all of you for participating and for making the judge's job so difficult!

Amy, an autographed copy of Brandt Dodson's latest novel THE LOST SHEEP will be shipped to you soon.

Now, let's get acquainted with our winner:

Amy Barkman is the Founder/Director of Voice of Joy Ministries created in 1979, pastor of Mortonsville United Methodist Church since 1998, and member of the American Association of Christian Counselors since 1987.

She's a happily married mother of three daughters, stepmother of two daughters and proud grandmother of 13 grandchildren.

Amy loves to study the Bible and digging into Hebrew and Greek word studies. She enjoys prayer counseling with people who truly want their freedom to be one with Jesus Christ.For fun, she loves reading cozy murder mysteries and traveling, especially to England where she's been twice. She belongs to a Tudor interest e-mail group centered on Anne Boleyn and collects fiction and non-fiction about this second wife of Henry VIII as well as about other English monarchs.

She is also a writer, publishing a variety of pieces; she wrote a newspaper humor column for three years.

Amy says, "Above all I love Jesus and think of myself as one who 'loves much because she has been forgiven much.'"