"A Policeman Always Keeps His Eyes Open"

IT'S not that easy to commit . . .

"Crime on Mars."

(a.k.a. "Trouble with Time").

By Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and the SFE HERE).

Reprints page as "Crime on Mars" (ISFDb HERE).

Reprints page as "Trouble with Time" (ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 1960.

Short short short story (5 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE) and (HERE).

   "No wonder the Goddess is the Solar System's Number One mystery."

HOW do you get away with stealing something when you're 140 million miles from Earth and there's only one way out? A pretty problem for our would-be thief . . .

Principal characters:

~ Detective-Inspector Rawlings, Mr. Maccar, Danny Weaver, and the unnamed narrator.

Typo: "near vaccum".

References (all are from Wikipedia):

- "Phobos" (HERE)

- "Meridian" (HERE); "International Date Line" (HERE)

- "you might as well steal the Mona Lisa" (HERE); "That's happened too" (HERE)

- "Late Canal Period" (HERE)

Sorry. No canals here.

- "a man will die in seconds without protection" (HERE)

- "the Syrtis Major" (HERE)

- "Mars Years" (HERE)

- "the Yard" (HERE).

Resources:

- Here is FictionMags's list of reprints for "Crime on Mars"/"Trouble with Time":

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (Australia) #159, September 1960

  Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (U.K.) #92, September 1960

  Ellery Queen’s 16th Mystery Annual, 1961

  The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1961

  The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (U.K.), October 1961

  Tales of Ten Worlds, 1962, as "Trouble with Time"

  Introducing SF: A Science Fiction Anthology, 1964, as "Trouble with Time"

  The Nine Billion Names of God, 1967, as "Trouble with Time"

  Ellery Queen’s Minimysteries, 1969

  Quickie Thrillers, 1975

  The Gourmet Crook Book, 1976

  Masterpieces of Mystery: The Sixties, 1978

  The Evening News Collection (2), 1991, as "Trouble with Time"

  More Than One Universe, 1991, as "Trouble with Time"

  Cyber-Killers, 1997

  Cyber-Killers, 1998

  The Collected Stories, 2001, as "Trouble with Time"

  Fourth Planet from the Sun, 2005.

- One of Arthur C. Clarke's stories was, mirabile dictu, performed on live TV, no less, back in the fifties; see Mystery*File (HERE).

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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