It All Adds Up

APOLOGIES in advance: If you have trouble reading this story, then feel free to use the hotlink down below it:

John Baer, "A Little Matter of Arithmetic," Detective Story Magazine, February 11, 1922. Also online (HERE). Reprinted in Best Detective Magazine, May 1933.

Resource:

- Two other John Baer stories, "Keep Your Wits!" and "More Than He Could Chew," are highlighted (HERE).

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"A Detective Story Cannot Be Analysed Like Other Fiction"

WE first noted T. S. Eliot's interest in detective fiction eight years ago (HERE), but he wasn't finished with the genre just yet:

T. S. Eliot, "Books of the Quarter," The Monthly Criterion (1927). Also online (HERE).

References and resources:

R. Austin Freeman (HERE) and reactions to The D'Arblay Mystery (HERE).

A. Fielding (HERE) and The Footsteps That Stopped (?).

Allen Upward (HERE) and The House of Sin (?).

Traill Stevenson (?) and The Diamond in the Hoof (?).

J. J. Connington (HERE) and The Dangerfield Talisman reviewed (HERE).

G. McLeod Winsor (HERE) and The Mysterious Disappearances ("re-titled Vanishing Men in 1927, is a series of locked-room type mystery stories, including that of a mad scientist who develops a levitation device with which to kidnap his victims").

C. Fraser-Simson (?) and Footsteps in the Night (?).

Donald Dike (?) and The Bishops Park Mystery (?).

J. S. Fletcher (HERE) and The Massingham Butterfly (online HERE).

Other mentions:

Wilkie Collins (HERE) and a review of The Moonstone (HERE).

Poe (HERE).

Sherlock Holmes (HERE).

Arsène Lupin (HERE).

"Jacques Roulleteabille" (sic) (HERE).

The Count of Monte-Cristo (HERE).

H. G. Wells (HERE).

"The Gold Bug" (SPOILERS! HERE).

Sergeant Cuff (HERE).

"Dr. Thorndike" (sic) (HERE).

Dr. Tarlton (?).

Inspector Gilmour (?).

Bonus Criterion reviews:

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"The First Case of Murder on Record Here in Thirty Generations. Incredible!"

"Make a Prison."

By Lawrence Block (born 1938; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the IMDb HERE; and his Homepage HERE).

First appearance: The Original Science Fiction Stories, January 1959.

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Among the reprints:

  The 5th Annual Edition of the Year’s Best S-F, 1969.

  The Great SF Stories #21 (1959), 1990.

  One Night Stands, 1999, as "Nor Iron Bars a Cage".

Short short short story (4 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "The Altheans had never seen a being like this one before, but they knew he was dangerous. So every precaution had to be taken to make his prison escape-proof."

A REAL desperado, this one, more than worthy of his punishment—but there's a catch . . .

Main characters:

~ First Althean ("I don't mean to sound boastful, but we've figured out all the angles"), Second Althean ("I'm glad he can't escape"), and The Prisoner ("walked to the edge of the tower and leaned over the railing, gazing down at them").

Reference:

- The inspiration for the title seems to come from Richard Lovelace's 1642 poem, "To Althea, From Prison" (see HERE):

    Stone walls doe not a prison make,

          Nor iron bars a cage

Resources:

- Hollywood must love movies with an escape theme since they've put a lot of money into a lot of them (and made a lot of money out of a lot of them). A few examples: (WARNING! SPOILERS!) (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE)—and so 

forth . . .

- Lawrence Block is better known as a crime fiction writer, and "Make a Prison" (a.k.a. "Nor Iron Bars a Cage") is the only SFF-nal story by him that we can find at the moment.

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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In the Dark

THE spirit of Dostoevsky crosses over to the pulp fiction scene in . . .

"Murder, My Darling."

By Frank D. Millman (?-?).

First appearance: Triple Detective, Fall 1955.

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE) and The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 110; slow load).

(Note: Text very faded.)

   "She never put on the light, never uttered a word."

"IT was to be a perfect crime? No! I've heard enough and seen enough, I know there is no perfect crime. It's like I told you darling, the average criminal who tries for a perfect murder trips up on his own fancy work." Fair enough, but there's more than one way to trip yourself up, and today's killer chooses what is probably the worst way of all . . .

Principal characters:

~ The eternal triangle: Gloria, Martha, and John.

Typo: "There is comes".

Resources:

- Our author, Frank D. Millman, evidently wasn't very prolific (ss = short story; FictionMags data).

  - "Success Story," (ss) Popular Detective, May 1953 (online HERE)

  - "My Corpse Craves Company," (ss) Triple Detective, Summer 1954 (online HERE)

  - "Murder, My Darling," (ss) Triple Detective, Fall 1955 (above).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"The Truth Which Was at the Heart of It All Is So Dreadful, and So Strange, That We Must Gradually Accustom Our Minds To Receive It"

WHEN today's story first appeared, science fiction didn't have a name, which is why the All-Story editor chose to bill it as "A 'DIFFERENT' STORY." But science fiction it is, as a "war-torn earth" turning hopefully back to peace must instead cope with . . .

"The Mind Machine."

By Michael Williams (1877-1950; WikiTree HERE and the ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: All-Story Weekly, March 29, 1919.

Reprints pages (ISFDb HERE and HERE), as well as 10 Story Book, September 1927 and 10 Story Book, March 1938. (FictionMags data.)

Novelette (17 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

(Note: Text faded but readable.)

   "I’m worried stiff. Last week we lost ninety-two elevator operators in the United States and Canada. Yesterday sixty-three electrical engineers and dynamo tenders were killed—"

Segments:

  Chapter I: The Liquid Mystery.

  Chapter II: The Dawning of the Terror.

  Chapter III: David Evans.

  Chapter IV: The Mind Machine.

  Chapter V: In the Dynamo Room.

IF people don't run things, who will?

Main characters:

~ John A. Cummings ("I am writing this narrative, in the briefest possible form, upon the last paper left to me, in a cave in the Sierra Nevadas"), David Evans ("I thought he was awakened to the truth; but he is not, he is not"), Richard Meehan ("He's about the biggest brain we own"), Jarvis Cummings ("If you had my job, you would not only be mussed up with lack of sleep, but you’d be scared as well"), and Lawrence Dunn ("our Sherlock Holmes depart-ment"). 

Typo: "you yould fail".

References:

- "The great Edison tradition"; "another Edison" (HERE).

- "in the dynamo-rooms" (HERE).

- "as Roosevelt’s used to be" (HERE):

  This would be the 26th American president, not his fifth cousin.

- "having Celtic imagination and fervor" (HERE).

- "Anarchy, the vile, soulless, antisocial, antihuman power which always is the foe of organized human life!" (HERE).

- "any more than Pilate understood the truth" (HERE).

- "impossible things, like perpetual motion" (HERE).

- "development of the improved Edison-Steinmetz calculating machine" (HERE).

- "a world state devoid of all organized law, in an ideal form of anarchistic control, was known as the Inner Circle" (HERE and HERE).

- "make machinery not merely automatic, but intelligently automatic" (HERE).

Resource:

- We must wonder if Francis Flagg read today's story, his "The Mentanicals" (HERE) coming along fifteen years later.

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"Only Brains Will Get You Out of This Mess"

WE should be grateful that most criminals aren't nearly as smart as they think they are; for examples, take these two stories, both by the same author . . .

(1) "Keep Your Wits!"

By John Baer (?-?).

First appearance: Detective Story Magazine, December 18, 1926.

Short short story (6 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

(Note: Text faded.)

   "CRIMINALS are sometimes caught by extremely clever detective work; sometimes criminals convict themselves through sheer stupidity. And in other cases, a set of entirely unexpected circumstances and coincidences combine to enmesh the criminal in the net of the law. This combination of accidents is generally called 'fate,' the criminal himself is apt to term it dumb luck."

THE lesson is clear: If you hope to get away with a perfect crime, then make sure you've thought of everything: "Walls had been knocked down, and other walls set up; the dumb-waiter opening had been widened, and a self-running elevator built into it—a device that was often out of order" . . .

Principal characters:

~ Hy Kolmer ("He was a quick-witted man, this Hy Kolmer, and he took no end of pride in the fact"), Carl Marquard ("catered to what he called the sporting element; his house was generally well filled during the fall and winter months"), Mrs. Marquard ("Carl! Carl! Peat forgot his glasses!"), Raymond Peat ("was very proud of the collection and displayed it to the other house guests both at the dining table and in his room"), and Detective Cary ("He was clever, but fate turned his very cleverness against him").

Comment: This one is vaguely reminiscent of an Agatha Christie short story that appeared several years before.

(2) "More Than He Could Chew."

By John Baer (?-?).

First appearance: Detective Story Magazine, April 16, 1927.

Short short story (8 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "In the end, he bragged his head off. We don’t mean that as a colloquialism. We mean it literally."

"IF people will bring dynamite into a powder factory, they must expect explosions." So saith Dorothy Sayers. Charley Ney is one of those people who are constantly hauling a load of emotional dynamite around, so the world had better step aside or else. That's the way it's always been—until Charley makes first one mistake in killing someone and then another mistake in thinking he won't be held responsible for it. Unlucky for Charley, there's somebody, someone close, who strongly disagrees . . .

Principal characters:

~ Bosco Charley Ney ("It was an even bet among the boys that when you met the Bosco he would be noisily crunching something hard and sweet between his teeth"), Willy Reiger ("possessed an uncontrollable temper, and this led to his undoing"), Benny Peplaw ("told the story and Ney and Brock swore to it"), Norman Dike ("It is my intention to use my head, not my fists or a gun"), Mr. Massinger ("Murder is murder"), Sicondo ("Watch out with that stuff. I don’t want this place blown up"), and Little Eddy Coyle ("toppled over in a faint").

Reference:

- "the nitroglycerin" (HERE).

Resource:

- Our only other encounter with John Baer so far was his dive into dental criminality, "Murder in Haste" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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"This One's a Homicide"

THE hardboiled school of detective fictioneers gets ample representation in today's story, this time off-planet, as murder stalks . . .

"Ophir Chasma."

By Kacey Ezell (born 1977; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; Goodreads HERE; and her Homepage HERE).

First appearance: Down These Mean Streets, 2024.

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Novelette (17 pages as a PDF).

Online at Baen Books (HERE).

(Parental caution: Language and violence.)

   "Of course, I also wasn’t sure why someone would want to bury the murder of a Joygirl."

THERE'S a serial killer loose on Mars who seems determined to follow in Jack the Ripper's bloody footsteps, but the authorities are strangely uninterested. Why? A detective with a little more empathy for the victims than might be healthy decides to find out . . .

Main characters:

~ Jane Doe ("Approximately ten local years old, or just under twenty by Terran reckoning"), Deselle ("what can I say, I’m a detective. Being nosy is my job"), Brinz ("was a good guy, if a bit more garrulous than I’d like"), Dr. Kabeya ("I told you what you wanted to know. Now please get the hell out of my morgue and let me get on with my job"), Timea Vang ("This guy is really great, Deselle"), Dane ("I’m not a baby!"), Vomero ("a good detective, if a little short on people skills"), Rubilard ("Deselle. I am your boss. I am telling you to drop it"), the receptionist ("Do I need to call Security?"), the custodian ("The refugees had made it out here to Melas, it seemed. Or at least this one had"), and Dr. Abunto ("even showed me the datalogs that confirmed one hundred percent biometric login to the school’s virtual library").

References:

- Mars colonies (HERE).

- Olympus Mons (HERE).

- Ophir Chasma (HERE).

The scene of the crime.

- "a long sol" (HERE and HERE).

  (Note: A year on Mars equals 1.88 years on Earth.)

- "my HUD" (HERE).

- "a monomolecular blade that would cut through just about anything, given enough time" (HERE).

- "the Valles Marineris complex" (HERE).

- "So she was shorter and denser than most of us natives" (HERE).

- "over in Melas" (HERE).

- "Arean-enclosed cities" (HERE).

- "Organ harvester?" (HERE)

- "a domestic" (HERE).

- "maglev train" (HERE and HERE).

- "the advanced nanite diagnostic imagers" (HERE and HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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