Friday, October 27, 2017

"The Flesh Surrounding His Heart Is Charred to a Cinder"

"Murder from Mars."
By Richard Wilson (1920-87).
First appearance: Astonishing Stories, April 1940.
Reprinted in The 23rd Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack (2015).
Short story (10 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Note: Text is very faded, so you'll likely need the "Zoom In" function.)

"Ray Carver, vacationing top-notch Earth detective, looks for the first interplanetary killer and finds a wife."
Carver and his manservant Murphy make nabbing a vanishing murderer look easy, but The Green Hornet and Kato they ain't.
Comment: This could have been a real whingdinger, but there's no real mystery here—and even the artist gets it wrong. Disappointing.
Typo: "Its not a receiving set"

Resources:
- You can find a lot of info about Richard Wilson (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE).
- Project Gutenberg has a few of Wilson's stories online (HERE).
- The author describes the Barsoom's captain as having a "Menjou mustache"; see (HERE) for a collection of images of that actor and you'll get the idea.

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