"It Was All So Sudden That Both Men Were Frozen in a Position of Instant Immobility."

(1) "Great Night for a Murder."

By Michael Avallone (1924-99; Wikipedia HERE; The Thrilling Detective HERE; the ISFDB HERE; and the SFE HERE).

First appearance: Shell Scott Mystery Magazine, September 1966.

Short short short story (2 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "The man waiting for him in the darkness was patient."

THEY say there's a time and a place for everything, but, as our killer will discover to his dismay, not this time, not this place . . .

Principal characters:

~ Wilstock, Colin Browne, the seaman, and Mary (in absentia).

Resource:

- "He could sure tell a story. He couldn’t write, but he could sure tell a story." That was Bill Crider's assessment of Michael Avallone, and today's little story confirms Crider's viewpoint. See The Thrilling Detective website (HERE) about Avallone's incredible prolificity.

NOW let's go off-Earth—and run right into a . . .

(2) "Bee Sting."

By William Ballard (ISFDB HERE).

Illustration by Brad W. Foster (ISFDB HERE).

First appearance: Amazing Stories, May 1989.

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "Sister Cruikshank, your song is baleful indeed. Your kind have more cunning than we ephemerals could hoard. Let it be as you have sung: 

Abide with us."

EVEN in the far future, unless there's a radical change, the urge to run a con will probably still be with us . . .

Principal characters:

~ Cruikshank, the Translator, and the Hive-Mother.

References:

- "cephalothorax" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the Pseudo-Hymenopterans" (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).

- "had neither FTL flight" (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia) "or hyperwave" (HERE; Wikipedia; HERE; Atomic Rockets).

- "throughout the Spiral Arm" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "this Imago sings" (HERE; Wikipedia).

Resource:

- We recently highlighted an entirely different kind of story that nevertheless employed the same figure of speech (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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"There Reflected Was the Remarkable Face of an Intellectual Cutthroat."

"Beyond Murder."

By Phil Richards (1904-88).

First appearance: Secret Agent X, November 1936.

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at The Pulpgen Archive (HERE).

   "By the simple process of murdering Dr. Chappell and changing the title page on 'Swan Song,' the colossal work would become his."

OUR killer falls asleep "with the assurance that he’d fathered a perfect crime." When will they ever learn?

Main characters:

~ Stanley Henshaw ("I’ll make half a million dollars out of it alone"), Dr. Chappell ("I have a  premonition that shortly the inexorable surge that is life will force me out—for a fresh, unbattered casing to carry forth its mystery"), Chief Lambert ("You trying to make a murder case outa this?"), and Nick Forbes ("He’s guilty as hell!").

Typo: "Handsaw’s wrists".

References:

- "the Mephistophelian cast of his refined and sensitive countenance" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the financial success of 'Anthony Adverse'" (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).

- "Alexander Dumas" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "marry into the Social Register" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "He looked like a very, very tired Longfellow" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "into a catnap" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "forcing carbon monoxide fumes into the lungs" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the Nobel Prize for literature—another fifty grand" (HERE; Wikipedia). By the way, the 1936 Nobel for Lit went to Eugene O'Neill (HERE; Wikipedia). Fifty grand in 1936 is worth $1,201,143.88 today (HERE; CPI Inflation Calculator).

- "Rigor mortis—the stiffening of the body after death—held the corpse rigid" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the four thousand volts of the electric chair" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the tannin precipitation test" (HERE; Wikipedia).

Resources:

- Phil(ip) MacLeod Richards was among that distinguished coterie of uberpulpsters, writers who could get published in almost any genre.

- Television bad guys have been known to do what our killer does here, take credit for something they didn't create and eliminate the creator. Two Columbo episodes, for examples, come to mind: "Murder by the Book" (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE; The Columbophile Blog) and "Murder with Too Many Notes" (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE; The Columbophile Blog), but these definitely aren't the only ones you'll probably come across in your TV viewing.

- Poison often shows up in detectfic. Here's a short list:

  Lee Sullivan Berry's nonfictional "Forensic Chemistry in Golden-Age Detective Fiction: Dorothy L. Sayers and the CSI Effect" (HERE).

  Max Afford's "Poison Can Be Puzzling" (HERE; first story).

  Bernard Capes's "The Poison Bottle" (HERE).

  F. L. Nelson's "The Seven Tortoise-Shell Cats" (HERE).

  H. G. Wells's "The Thumbmark" (HERE).

  Steve Fisher's "If Christmas Comes" (HERE).

  and Fredric Brown's "The Hobbyist" (HERE; first story).

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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"You're Beyond the Stage for Omens, You're Now Headed in for the Kill, Yours or His"

IT was an American, Ray Bradbury, who kickstarted the idea of hunting dinosaurs before they turned into fossils, a sport that can, as his story demonstrates, have dire results. Brian Aldiss, an Englishman, turned to the same theme six years after Bradbury in a story that could be thought of as Claude Ford meets Francis Macomber, with the appropriate title of . . .

"Poor Little Warrior!"

By Brian W. Aldiss (1925-2017; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDB HERE; the SFE HERE; and the IMDb HERE).

First appearance: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1958.

Reprints page (ISFDB HERE).

Short short short story (6 pages).

Online at SFFaudio (HERE) and Baen Books (HERE).

   "OK, you keep saying to yourself insanely over and over, your million-dollar twenty-second-century education going for nothing, OK, OK."

TWO of the universal themes of literature that they try to teach you in college is MAN vs. NATURE—you know, humankind's struggle just to survive in what can be a hostile world—and MAN vs. MAN, usually resulting in hatred and war stemming from any or all of humanity's failings. At first glance, today's story seems to fit into the first category, but if you think about it, you might agree with us that it rests on yet another universal literary theme, MAN vs. HIMSELF . . .

Principal characters:

~ Claude Ford, Maude, and various flora and fauna.

Typo: "woiild sink".

References:

- "meets Francis Macomber" (HERE; WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia).

- "to hunt a brontosaurus" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the work of Mother Nature" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- ".65 self-loading, semi-automatic, dual-barrelled, digitally-computed, telescopically-sighted, rustless, high-powered rifle": That would make the bullet larger than the biggest standard machine gun round today (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the ventricle" (HERE; Wikipedia) "keeps miraculous time with the auricle" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "Time for listening to the oracle is past" (HERE; Wikipedia.)

- "this bloody little urge to slay the dragon" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the whole indifferent Jurassic world" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "a couple of hayricks-full" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "to unbecalm the Ancient Mariner" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "a saga, sagacious, Beowulfate" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "to wave the Woolworth Building" (HERE; Wikipedia) "at a tarsier" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "to shoot giant saurians" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the dum-dums" (HERE; Wikipedia), "big as paw-paws" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "closed till Judgment Day" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "a creepy Secondary Era slowness" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the sedimentary rocks" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "in a tomb finer than any Indian rajah ever boasted" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "in a brow of the Rockies" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the contraterrene caverns" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "fumblingly fearful id" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "all hope abandon, ye who entrail here": A parody of Dante's inscription over the gate to Hell (HERE; Wikipedia).

Resources:

- Ray Bradbury's story about dino hunting is "A Sound of Thunder" (Collier's, June 28, 1952; online at Lecturia HERE).

- Brutus Lloyd has an encounter with dinosaurs in Thorton Ayre's "The Case of the Mesozoic Monsters" (HERE; second story).

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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OLD-TIME DETECTION, Summer 2026

(Give Me That) OLD-TIME DETECTION (OTD). Summer 2026. Issue #72. Editor: Arthur Vidro. Old-Time Detection Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd. 34 pages (including covers).

  ARTHUR VIDRO is clearly on a roll, generating a readable and entertaining compendium of mystery lore every time.

  In this issue: Two hardboileds get their due notice - Agatha gets dissed - Meanwhile, Carolyn Wells gets overlooked - In contrast, Sir Arthur receives the royal treatment - We have a plenitude of paperbacks to choose from - There was more to Moriarty than Conan Doyle told us - Indeed, there was a lot more to one of JDC's novels than most of us realize - Not all puns are atrocious; some can even help solve a crime - And getting tuckerized just might make your day.

  Being an established crimefic author himself, Martin Edwards is more than qualified to give us his take on Dashiell Hammett's THE DAIN CURSE (1929): "His execution of the concept is artistically flawed . . ."

  While we're dealing with hardboiled detectives, let's hear what Lawrence Block has to say about Philip Marlowe's creator in "Raymond Chandler.": "He decided to write his way out of it."

  Dr. John Curran's "Christie Corner" illuminates the dark side of the "re-imagining" craze that, when all is said and done, results in trashing the original sources (our list: STAR TREK and even THE ODYSSEY; Curran provides his own listing). He produces a quotable quote near the end of the article: "Poirot never walked around his apartment barefoot; Miss Marple never climbed onto a barstool and ordered a whiskey; Tommy and Tuppence never worked alongside Jane Marple. We have re-imagining to thank for these aberrations."

  Michael Dirda considers a literary puzzle involving the virtual disappearance of a once-popular mystery novelist in his review of THE VANISHING OF CAROLYN WELLS: INVESTIGATIONS INTO A FORGOTTEN MYSTERY AUTHOR (2024) by Rebecca Rego Barry: 

". . . Wells seems to have settled happily into writing formulaic country-house whodunits."

  The first fiction piece in this issue is "The Adventure of the Clothes-Line," when the aforementioned Carolyn Wells decided to have fun with Sherlock Holmes and the plethora of copycat sleuths that were prevalent at the time (1915). If you've never read it, here's your chance.: "A reward is offered for the solution of a great mystery - so great, my colleagues, that I fear none of you will be able to solve it . . ."

  J. Randolph Cox makes a huge contribution to Sherlockian scholarship (and literature in general) with his biobibliographical article, "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.": "Conan Doyle had no intention of writing more than those first six Holmes stories."

  Charles Shibuk continues to chronicle the efflorescence of paperback reprints of classic mysteries as well as new ones, from fifty (yes, fifty!) years ago. Featured authors: John Dickson Carr, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, P. D. James, Peter Lovesey, Arthur Lyons, John D. MacDonald, Ngaio Marsh, Douglas Rutherford, and Rex Stout ("This is one more example of Stout's pre-World War II mastery of the classic detective novel"). Then come Adrian Conan Doyle along with John Dickson Carr and John Gardner.

  John Gardner, by the way, successfully spun stories off the original Sherlock Holmes canon, earning him not just money but also an interview with EQMM, which is reproduced here: 

". . . it was obvious there was only one thing James Moriarty could be: he must have been the Victorian Godfather."

  Even if you're not a JDC fan, Dan Napolitano's well-researched "Carr's THE BURNING COURT: Inception and Influences" is nevertheless noteworthy: "THE BURNING COURT is worth reflection, and indeed, worth revisiting."

  If you're fond of puns, then you'll probably enjoy the second piece of fiction in today's issue, Jon L. Breen's "The Pun Detector and the Danny Boy Killer." (And if you're not fond of puns, what can we say?): "I advise you to investigate every plumber in the city." (This was Breen's third, and latest, Pun Detector story; the first one is dealt with at the ONTOS weblog HERE.)

  Art Scott recalls how on one occasion he got "Tuckerized by Ed Hoch." Have you been tuckerized lately? It's not really that bad.

  Judging from the letters column, it's obvious that OTD readers are pleased with Arthur's efforts.

  This issue's puzzle is just that, a real puzzler. We'll say no more.

  But we will say a little more about how this issue proves that OTD is well-worth the subscription price. Speaking of which . . .

   – Published three times a year: Spring, summer, and autumn. – Sample copy: $7.00 in U.S.; $12.00 anywhere else. – Subscription rates:  One-year U.S.: $20.00.; one-year overseas: $45.00 (33 pounds sterling or 38 euros). – Payment: Checks payable to Arthur Vidro, or cash from any nation, or U.S. postage stamps or PayPal. Mailing address:

   Arthur Vidro, editor

   Old-Time Detection

   2 Ellery Street

   Claremont, New Hampshire 03743

   Web address: vidro@myfairpoint.net

Resource:

- The Spring 2026 issue of OTD got reviewed at Mystery*File (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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"A Criminal Cured Is a Citizen Saved."

"Public Enemy."

(Click on image to enlarge.)

By Kendell Foster Crossen (1910-81; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and the SFE HERE).

First appearance: Dynamic Science Fiction, December 1952.

Reprinted in Future Science Fiction Stories, Number 10, 1953.

Short short short story (6 pages as a PDF).

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE).

   "For what seemed like several long minutes the two men stared at each other, while the encephalscope fairly purred."

WILL psychology ever be victorious over the criminal mind? Today's story attempts to show us how that might turn out . . .

Main characters:

~ Public Police Officer Brad Raynor ("Secretly, he was amused at himself. No one was prouder than Brad Raynor of the progress made by the middle of the 32nd Century, while all of his training had been directed toward increasing that progress"), the Assignment Officer ("under any circumstances, bring this man in alive"), the Public Justice Administrator ("We have already discovered a number of other citizens who have become slightly unstable because of feeling that they are in a hostile environment"), Jan Laird ("Then, slowly, reluctantly, the fingers spread and the gun dropped to the floor"), Will Howard ("As a result of the unemployment, Will Howard committed robbery and in leaving the premises shot and killed a public officer"), and Public Officer Arthur Sommers (deceased).

References:

- "Public Enemy" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "one of the suburbs lying north of Nyork": Three guesses as to what city this is (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "His three degrees—one in psychology" (HERE), "one in sociology" (HERE), "one in criminalistics" (HERE) (all in Wikipedia).

- "A speeding air-car" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "which included his brain-wave pattern and a chemical analysis" (HERE; Wikipedia); "the fugitive’s brain-wave pattern into the encephalscope" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "The Public Police Administration was not formed to preside at the execution of citizens." That's nice, but another view of the future takes a different attitude from Crossen's (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the cybernetic control": Essentially an autopilot (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "projecting a tractor beam" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "began broadcasting supersonic waves" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "he began nosing it to the side and down": A futuristic version of (THIS; Wikipedia).

- "He pulled an electronic pick from his pocket" (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the nerve-gun concealed in his hand" (HERE; Wikipedia).

Resources:

- Speaking of cerebrums, you might consult Ron Goulart's "The President's Brain Is Missing" (HERE).

- Our only other meeting with Kendell Foster Crossen was his locked-room tale "The Closed Door" (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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Two from Levinson and Link

MOST of you may know Richard Levinson and William Link from their names appearing on high-quality TV mystery series like Columbo and Murder, She Wrote; on just five occasions, however, our authors did 

publish under a different byline, an amalgamation of their two middle 

names (see second story below). 

OUR first story, though, features the two collaborators using their real names and their inside knowledge of television production to tell the 

tale of a man troubled by an ominous dream that inexplicably seems 

to follow a . . .

(1) "Shooting Script."

By Richard Levinson (1934-87; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDB HERE; and the IMDb HERE) and William Link (1933-2020; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDB HERE; and the IMDb HERE). Both summarized in Wikipedia (HERE).

First appearance: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, April 1959.

Reprints:

  Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Sampler Fall 1959 (var.3)

 Suspense (Australia), December 1960

 Suspense (U.K.), December 1960

  Shooting Script and Other Mysteries, 2021.

Short short story (9 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "He sat down in a chair and let the gun drop to the rug. Then he waited patiently for the darkness."

MOST people consider eavesdropping merely as bad manners, but on very rare occasions it can be deadly . . .

Principal characters:

~ The man, the woman, Al Standish, Carol, Red Holliday, Earl Babitz, Lederer, Rowe, the female vocalist, the harmonica player, and Merrick (offstage). 

References:

- "knowledge of television production" (HERE; Wikipedia and HERE; howstuffworks).

- "bright, burning kleigs" (HERE; Wikipedia) "and small baby spots" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "KCAB" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the mike boom" (HERE; Wikipedia).

THE next story more than adequately explains why . . .

(2) "Suddenly, There Was Mrs. Kemp."

By Ted Leighton (Richard Levinson and William Link).

First appearance: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, April 1959.

Reprints:

  Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Sampler, Fall 1959 (var.3)

  Suspense (Australia), January 1961

  Suspense (U.K.), January 1961

  Shooting Script and Other Mysteries, 2021.

Short short short story (6 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "You'd be surprised what I see from my window. Really."

The song warns us: "Never smile at a crocodile." Excellent advice for this particular blackmailer . . .

Principal characters:

~ Walt Hannis, Rose (deceased), Mrs. Kemp, Billy (feathered), and the district attorney's secretary.

Comment: The basic premise of this story is very reminiscent of a major subplot complication for the killer in the first regular season Columbo episode (WARNING! SPOILERS! HERE; IMDb).

Typo: "siad Hannis".

Resources:

- As per FictionMags, here are the Ted Leighton stories (ss = short story; ar = article):

  "Suddenly, There Was Mrs. Kemp," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, April 1959 (above)

  "The Hundred-Dollar Bird’s Nest," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, August 1959

  "Memory Game," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, September 1959

  "Teddy Wilson," (ar) Escapade, March 1968

  "Moondog: Guru Unto Himself," (ar) Escapade, May 1968.

- We've communed with Levinson and Link (or Link flying solo) on several previous occasions: (HERE), (HERE, with a related off-site article HERE), (HERE), and (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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"I Will Tell You in Simple Straightforward Fashion How I Solved the Secret of the Flying Saucers."

"Case History."

By Nelson Bond (1908-2006; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and the IMDb HERE, 27 credits).

First appearance: Fantastic Universe, April 1958.

Reprinted in The Far Side of Nowhere, 2002 (TOC HERE).

Short short short story (4 pages).

Online at SFFaudio (HERE).

   "I determined to make myself uniquely, inescapably, conspicuous."

THE solution is so simple that we wonder why no one else thought of it before this 

guy did . . .

Main characters:

~ The chief of staff, John Wilson, and the steeplejack.

References:

- "such objects had been sighted for over a hundred years" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "Earth's most outstanding artificial landmark is the Empire State Building" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "a cartoon character known as Superman" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "my small stock of flares" (HERE; Wikipedia) "and Roman candles" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "a professional steeplejack" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the star Aldebaran" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "the planet Earth" (HERE; Wikipedia) "of the star Sol" (HERE and HERE; Wikipedia).

Resources:

- We've already met Nelson S. Bond on a previous occasion ten years ago: "Shall Stay These Couriers . . ." (HERE).

The bottom line:

"Get a grip, Margaret! Remember what the doctor said about your road rage."

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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