First Line – Five for Fighting and a Murder Misconduct

by Frank · February 3, 2019

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There are few smells better than the ice at a hockey rink.

That’s how my Stefan Kopriva novella, Five for Fighting and a Murder Misconduct begins. It’s a fitting start, since this Kopriva mystery sees him contracted to help out a hockey player named Phillipe Richard with a personal problem he’s having. Kopriva gets wrapped up in a lot of drama, and ultimately, murder.

This books takes place after the events of Waist Deep, but before the events of the second novel in the series, Lovely, Dark, and Deep.

Being a huge hockey fan myself, it was fun to weave elements of the sport into this mystery.

As first lines go, I think this one is perfectly servicable. It puts you where you need to be to start the story. I give it a solid B.

You?

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Stefan Kopriva is a character that remains interesting to me. This novella and two short stories are the only times he has starred outside of the mystery series that bears his name. I almost revisted him for my entry in Lawrence Kelter’s Black Car Business anthology, but realized that the story I was thinking was really a novel, not a novella. In all likelihood, this story idea is what will become the fourth Kopriva novel, The Last Prayer. No set release date on that, but it is on my “finish before the end of 2020” list.

Five for Fighting and a Murder Misconduct first appeared in the July 2006 issue of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine. At the time, I’m pretty sure it was the longest short story of mine (novella, really) to be published.

FMAM is still alive and kicking, which is pretty amazing in the publishing world. They’ve changed their focus from publishing fiction to commentary, but still provide great content to the crime fiction world.

This novella also appears in my River City short story collection, No Good Deed. The stories in this (and Dead Even) are grouped by character, so Kopriva joins Connor O’Sullivan, Glen Bates, Shae & Laddie, and Carl (the Yankee, I suppose — he never does get a last name) for at least two stories each. Kopriva gets three — this one, and the flash piece, “Beaten by Anger” that is somewhat of a sequel to it (first appeared in the anthology Seven by Seven), and “Cassie.” All three take place in the same interregnum between the first two books.

Incidentally, “Cassie” first appeared in Yellow Mama, the long-running (and still publishing crime fiction) eZine from the awesome Cindy Rosmus. The ‘zine celebrated a ten year anniversary a couple of years ago, and I was proud that “Cassie” was selected as one of their all-time best for that celebration issue.

Stefan Kopriva has long been called my whipping boy by knowing readers, from his appearaqnce in the River City novels to his own series. I have to admit… it is true. I put the poor guy through hell over and over again. But he’s a tough little bastard, and he comes back each time. I gave him such a big hit at the end of Friends of the Departed that one of my longtime beta readers commented, “So you’re calling the series a rap, huh? No way he comes back from this.”

He will. In fact, there will be at least two more Kopriva novels… and maybe I should start exploring short stories with him again…

In the meantime, here’s where you can find him.