Every year since 2014, the The Crime Writers’ Accociatin and the Margery Allingham Society have jointly held an international competition for a short story. Their mission is to find the best unpublished short mystery, and not only that, but one which fits into Golden Age crime writer Margery Allingham’s definition of what makes a great mystery story.

The competition is open to all – both published and unpublished authors from all over the world. The competition is for short stories of up to 3,500 words, written in English. The story must be originally written in English, has not been previously published anywhere, and has neither been shortlisted for this competition, nor won any other competition.

Follow Margery’s definition of a mystery to be in with the best of chance of winning the prize. The way a submitted story matches this definition is awarded greater weighting in the scoring than any other criteria:

“The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it.”

– Margery Allingham

The winner receives a generous cash prize of £500.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.