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Beyond the Western
Steve Levi

Steven C. Levi is a sixty-something freelance historian and commercial writer who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, his home for past 40 years. He has a BA in European History and MA in American history from the University of California Davis and San Jose State. He has more than 80 books in print or on Kindle.

Levi specializes in history and creative thinking. His historical specialty is the Alaska Gold rush. He has the only composite book on the Alaska Gold Rush, BOOM AND BUST IN THE ALASKA GOLD FIELDS, and his play "Fanny Quigley's Place" has been a dinner theater presentation in Denali Park since 1995. His other Alaskan books include a history of Alaska's bush pilot frontier, COWBOYS OF THE SKY, THE HUMAN FACE OF THE ALASKA GOLD RUSH and a forensic analysis of Alaska's ghost ship, the Clara Nevada. The Clara Nevada sank in 1898 and came back up in 1908 - minus 100,000 ounces of gold.

In the field of creative thinking, he has developed a method of teaching people to be clever, to "think outside of the box." His educational software won a $40,000 Creative Thinking in Motion prize from the University of Oklahoma in 2005. His approach is to stop "A or B Thinking" and find an alternative. As an example, developing a way for city to balance a budget without raising taxes or cutting services.

Steve Levi
Master Of The Impossible Crime

[Follow the exploits of Detective Heinz Noonan at . See if you can solve the impossible crimes faster than the detective – matters such as a greyhound bus disappearing off the Golden Gate Bridge, how a plane can fly and land with no pilot, crew or passengers and why would anyone want to steal an empty armored car?]

Stories by Steve Levi

The Matter of the Piedi Cognili / Genri: Impossible Crime

Steve Levi

Heinz Noonan, the “Bearded Holmes” of the Sandersonville Police Department, was not bad at presentations – when those presentations were for the young. Noonan knew he would not live forever and his twins, both in college now, had not given an iota of interest in being in law enforcement. Flouting of the law, particularly the drinking age, was their hallmark. But Noonan knew, from personal experience, this was probably a passing phase. At least he hoped it was. Read the full story HERE>>

The Matter of the Privy Piracy / Genri: Impossible Crime

Steve Levi

Heinz Noonan, the “Bearded Holmes” of the Sandersonville Police Department, was not having a pleasant day at the beach. He did not get to the beach that often, and when he could go, he went as far from the maddening crowd as he could get. This was a chore even Hercules could not complete during the summer – summer, in Sandersonville, being defined as any moment between Memorial Day and Labor Day – but after Labor Day, pods of blue whales could pirouette in white suits down the beach and no one would be the wiser. Read the full story HERE>>

The Matter of the Vagrant Tattoo / Genre: Impossible Crime

Steve Levi

Heinz Noonan, the “Bearded Holmes” of the Sandersonville Police Department, was having a wonderful afternoon. The Sandersonville Commissioner of Homeland Security was hobnobbing with the money people out of Washington D. C. and his wife was ensconced in a weekend art retreat to capture in plein air of whatever was in plein air in Manteo. Or was it Nags Head? Virginia Beach? Wherever. But one thing was certain; there were not going to be any conversations on the electronic Beelzebub. Chortling to himself Noonan failed to remember one of his own adages: Whenever things are going along well, bad news is dialing your number.

In this case, it wasn’t bad news, just another loo-loo. Read the full story HERE>>

The Matter of the Peanut Rain / Genri: Impossible Crime

Steve Levi

Heinz Noonan, the "Bearded Holmes" of the Sandersonville Police Department, was cursing carbohydrates in all their forms – and those were the forms he loved: pasta, bread, milk, beans, potatoes, cookies and beans – while he dined on his fiber-rich, low-carb, lunch of celery stalks and tuna fish from a retort pack. It was not a pleasant repast. As he was regretting years of not being particularly concerned about what he ate, the office administrator and common sense dictator, sidled up to him and asked, “What’s the difference between an old bus station and a lobster with breast implants?”

Noonan stalled. “It will take me a year to figure that one out,” snapped the ravenous detective. “Tell me before I die of contemplation.”

“Line three,” was all she said. Read the full story HERE>>

The Matter of the Illegal Legal Simoleons / Genre: Impossible Crime

Steve Levi

Captain Noonan, the "Bearded Holmes" of the Sandersonville Police Department, was working on an understandable definition of ‘conundrum.’ It was an odd word which actually described nothing. The official definition was "a confusing and difficult problem or question." This, of course, was a bogus definition because "problems" and "questions" are "confusing" and/or "difficult;" otherwise they would not be "problems" or "questions." There were other words that were far more expressive for the same definition. A "puzzle," for instance, described the same condition but came with the added promise of a solution. A "juxtaposition" was the polar opposite of a "puzzle" because there was no solution, simply a stability between two opposites, like the Yin-Yang symbol indicating the world had both good and evil, and you just had to live with it because it had been that way since the cave. Read the full story HERE>>

The Matter of the Christian Muslim Yaupon Plaza Plot / Genre: Impossible Crime

Steve Levi

Heinz Noonan, the “Bearded Holmes” of the Sandersonville Police Department, was having a difficult day. More precisely, he was in agony. Writhing, as a matter of fact, as opposed to wrestling with an immutable difficulty. It was not a physical ailment or, for that matter, a psychological one. It was a one of personnel. In this case, himself. Read the full story HERE>>

Beyond the Western
Steve Levi

Stories by Steve Levi

Read More Stories by Steve Levi in the Side Trail Section HERE>>

BOOKS

All the Rest

Beyond the Western Steve Levi

Stories by Steve Levi

Read More Stories by Steve Levi in the Side Trail Section HERE>>

BOOKS

All the Rest

Beyond the Western
Steve Levi