Tuesday, January 28, 2025

"A Living, Breathing Biological Reality"

THE IDEA of the fictional "private eye" goes back a long ways, even before Poe latched onto it and Conan Doyle turned it into a franchise. As we see in today's story, the PI trope is still very much with us in the 21st century:

"Unclaimed."
By Annalee Newitz (born 1969; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and the SFE HERE).
First appearance: Shimmer No. 18, Summer 2014.
Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).
Found in Pwning Tomorrow (2015; ISFDb HERE).
Short story (18 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Parental warning: Strong profanity and extreme violence.)

   "But still the unknowable invaded her."

A SIMPLE, STRAIGHTFORWARD skiptrace turns into something totally unexpected when a private investigator gets hired to find a missing author. Piece of cake, right? By now you should know better . . .

Prose moments:
  "A spinal column of stairs stretched up to the weedy peak in a scoliotic curve. The summit was a shattered jawbone of stone teeth the size of dinosaurs."
  "If there was one thing Tom had learned in all her years as a detective, it was that passions didn’t disappear—they metastasized."
  "Plants erupted from enormous pots, and vines scaled the walls, clinging to the ceiling with corrosive fingers." 

Main characters:
~ Leslie Tom ("A gray wave of sleep overtook Tom, bringing with it a vision she knew wasn’t hers . . ."), Hu ("There was one terrible second of silence before he started screaming"), Nick Gray ("Fine. Two million it is"), Nelly McAuley ("The books will never disappear if I absorb them into my body, because my body will live forever"), J.J. Coal ("She was a weird lady"), Les Cohen ("I hope she’s dead"), and a paramedic ("Lucky you didn’t get sucked into that thing"). 

References:
- "the proteome" (HERE).
- "ateleological": "Bereft of teleology; not showing evidence of design or purpose" (HERE).
- "a compositelaced scorpion’s carapace with six human arms instead of legs" (HERE and HERE).
Sources: Wikipedia (HERE) and Wiktionary (HERE).

Resources:
- You might not agree, but we think there are character and plot parallels between this story and Les Johnson's "Murder in Space" (HERE).
- Is "Unclaimed" merely fiction or a prediction of the future? It depends on who you ask (HERE). Also see David Berreby's "The Punishment Fits the Crime" (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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Saturday, January 25, 2025

Norgil the Prestidigitector Times Three

COMIC VINE informs us about a magician detective who had a short run in the comics but a pretty good run in the pulps:

   "Along with writing The Shadow pulp novels Walter Gibson [a professional magician] also wrote non-fiction and short stories; one of the other series characters that he wrote about from time to time was Norgil the Magician, who was a normal stage magician who sometimes caught petty cooks.
   "Most of the short stories had the same basic theme, with Norgil using a stage magic to outdo a thief and then explain to whoever was around to listen (and the reading audience) how the trick worked." (Comic Vine HERE.)

It's true the stories have "the same basic theme," but they move along at a good clip; they are light-weight entertainment at its best.

(1) "Murderer's Throne."
By Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson, 1897-1985; Wikipedia HERE and HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; the IMDb HERE; and Magicpedia HERE).
Norgil the Magician No. 3.
First appearance: Crime Busters, February 1938.
Collected in Norgil the Magician, 1977 (ISFDb HERE; book online HERE).
Short story (14 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 24).
(Note: Text very faded.)

   "Within the next five minutes, the suave magician was due for the biggest surprise of his stage career."

A CRIMINAL KINGPIN is about to go on the lam, but not before he has robbed and murdered as he usually does. Ironically enough, in order to catch him, a perfectly innocent Norgil will also have to go on the lam—only to face a hair-raising close encounter with an electric chair: "This time others gave the cue—and their guns didn't carry blanks."

Chapters:
  I. Crooks Hear News
  II. Underground Evidence
  III. The Wrong Finale
  IV. Norgil's Vanish
  V. The Death Chair.

Typos: "long befort"; "that would fellow it".

Principal characters:
~ Norgil ("was aiming his blank-loaded revolver"), King Blauden ("controlled every racket in this town"), Louis Lanning ("a drab, timid type of fellow"), Fritz ("Fritz's brisk, nasal speech was a perfect imitation of the local commentator"), Irene ("might furnish evidence"), Bogo ("was deadly when he had his knife"), and Detective Caston ("What about it?").  

(2) "Murder in Wax."
By Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson, 1897-1985).
Norgil the Magician No. 14.
First appearance: Crime Busters, April 1939 (cover story).
Collected in Norgil - More Tales of Prestidigitection, 1978 (ISFDb HERE; book online HERE).
Short story (15 pages).
Online at Archive.org starting (HERE) and finishing (HERE).

   ". . . the steady drip-drip of the raining blood, that seemingly could betoken nothing less than the passing of a human life!"

BLOOD ON THE CEILING. Sounds dramatic, doesn't it? Nah, it's just red ink. Blame it on the cat. But, guess what, it really is blood, which means the cat, bless him, can keep the rest of his nine lives—but it also means that someone else is responsible for that corpse. Could it be . . . the robot?

Chapters:
  I. Drops of Blood
  II. Wanted—A Corpse
  III. The Chamber of Horrors
  IV. The Double Surprise
  V. Finished Crime.

Typo: "Lieberstraum".

Principal characters:
~ Norgil ("there should be a corpse"), Miriam Laymond ("There was fascinated horror in her eyes"), Harmon Wier ("When Wier smiled, it meant that he was satisfied, for his face was normally quite solemn"), Fritz ("Then there were a dozen or more who went down to the Chamber of Horrors"), and Boots ("Make it snappy").

References:
- "many famous magicians—de Kolta" (HERE), "Powell" (HERE), "and Dunninger" (HERE)
- "another large room filled with waxworks" (HERE and HERE)
- "Lieberstraum" [sic] (HERE)
- "the Chicago massacre" (HERE)
- "Marie Antoinette on the guillotine" (HERE)
- "Bluebeard's secret room" (HERE and HERE)
- "a waxwork Napoleon at St. Helena" (HERE, HERE, and HERE)
- "Belshazzar’s Feast" (HERE)
- "the Admiral Peary platform" (HERE)
- "old Simon Legree, ready to take a whack at Uncle Tom" (HERE and HERE).
Sources: Wikipedia (HERE) and Magicpedia (HERE).

(3) "Too Many Ghosts."
By Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson, 1897-1985).
Norgil the Magician No. 21.
First appearance: Mystery Magazine, May 1940.
Illustrated by Orban (1896-1974; ISFDb HERE).
No apparent reprints.
Novelette (17 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Note: Text extremely faded.)

   "Mystery stalked hand in hand with tragedy."

THERE'S PLENTY of skullduggery surrounding a production of Hamlet in a cash-strapped theater, the worst of it being a fatal collapse of proscenium curtains right on top of the leading man. Trying to figure out who would benefit from it and why has Norgil in the dark, literally as well as figuratively . . .

Chapters:
  I. The Ghost Walks
  II. The Man Below
  III. For One Night Only
  IV. The Death That Missed
  V. The Ghostly Hand
  VI. The Fingers Write.

Typos: "Norgill"; "Shapespeare"; "blackbard".

Comment: The exclamation mark (!) gets overused.

Principal characters:
Norgil ("Too many ghosts!"), Miriam Laymond ("stared with eyes that seemed hypnotized"), Marcus Pendleton ("he was a lousy Hamlet"), Martin Kyne ("But this will lift the hoodoo from the opera house"), Freeland Dubray ("his glazing eyes steadied for the moment"), Ray Laddimer ("There isn’t a show in the country that would play this opera house"), Bill Gorner ("When I say nobody, I ain’t allowing for no ghosts"), and Andrew Wardlon ("blubbered the truth").

References:
- "the rôle of Hamlet" (HERE)
- "Hamlet’s Father" (HERE)
- "a vampire bat" (HERE)
- "a burlesque policy" (HERE)
- "the soubrette" (HERE)
- "back to repertoire" (HERE)
- "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (HERE)
- "ectoplasm" (HERE)
- "the proscenium arch" (HERE)
- "the asbestos front curtain" (HERE)
- "the skull of Poor Yorick" (HERE)
- "used in ‘Rip Van Winkle'" (HERE)
- "the thunder trough" (HERE)
- "It’s an old stunt" (HERE).
Sources: Wikipedia (HERE).

Resources:
- Murder in the theater seems to be popular with Hollywood; at least two Murder: She Wrote episodes (HERE and HERE) used the trope.
  Print authors haven't ignored it, either (HERE).
  A superior made-for-TV movie written by mystery fiction cinema doyens Richard Levinson and William Link is Rehearsal for Murder (HERE), an adaptation, when you think about it, of Hamlet's The Mousetrap.
- Jess Nevins's entry about Norgil:
  "W. Bates Loring is a famous stage magician who as 'Norgil the Magician' is capable of selling out houses night after night. He is also a dedicated crime fighter. He doesn’t have any real magic, but the tricks and gimmicks he learned on-stage are sufficient to capture the bad guys, whether city racketeers or jewel thieves or villainous stage magicians. Norgil has quick and sure hands, is known and feared by other criminals, and is assisted by Fritz, who sometimes doubts his boss and sometimes needs to be rescued but is always faithful." (Jess Nevins's Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes HERE.)
- The Norgil the Magician stories (FictionMags data: ss = short story; nv = novelette):
   "Norgil," (ss) Crime Busters, November 1937, as by Maxwell Grant (see The Pulp.Net about Crime Busters HERE)
   "Ring of Death," (ss) Crime Busters, January 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Murderer’s Throne," (ss) Crime Busters, February 1938, as by Maxwell Grant (above)
   "The Second Double, (ss) Crime Busters, March 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Drinks on the House," (ss) Crime Busters, April 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Chinaman’s Chance," (ss) Crime Busters, May 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "The Glass Box," (ss) Crime Busters, June 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "The Mad Magician," (ss) Crime Busters, July 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "The Ghost That Came Back," (ss) Crime Busters, August 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "The Silver Venus," (ss) Crime Busters, September 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Double-Barrelled Magic," (ss) Crime Busters, November 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Magician’s Choice," (ss) Crime Busters, December 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Old Crime Week," (ss) Crime Busters, February 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Murder in Wax," (ss) Crime Busters, April 1939, as by Maxwell Grant (above)
   "The Mystery of Moloch," (nv) Crime Busters, June 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
   "$5,000 Reward," (nv) Crime Busters, July 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
   "The Chest of Ching Ling Foo," (nv) Crime Busters, September 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
   "The Blue Pearls," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, December 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
   "The Lady and the Lion," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, January 1940, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Crime in the Crystal," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, March 1940, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Too Many Ghosts," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, May 1940, as by Maxwell Grant (above)
   "Battle of Magic," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, July 1940, as by Maxwell Grant
   "Tank-Town Tour," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, November 1940, as by Maxwell Grant.

The bottom line:
Artwork by Gary Larson

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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Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Reggie in Linotype

RETURN WITH US to those halcyon days when, for just a few cents, quality mystery fiction could be found in the back pages of a daily newspaper. To judge from today's examples, people of that era must have had excellent eyesight if they were expected to discern 6-point text spread across eight narrow columns. If that doesn't describe you, then break out your bifocals and read about a British detective that you might have heard of:

(1) "The Efficient Assassin."
By H. C. Bailey (1878-1961; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and the GAD Wiki HERE).
Collected in Call Mr. Fortune (1920) (also online HERE).
Published in The Sunday Star, Washington, D.C., September 4, 1921.
Found on Archive.org (HERE).

IT GOES without saying that you'll be making extensive use of the magnifier thoughtfully provided by the Internet Archive. (Thirteen hits will display two columns.)

(2) "The Business Minister."
By H. C. Bailey (1878-1961).
(Click on image to enlarge.)
Collected in Call Mr. Fortune (1920) (also online HERE).
Published in The Sunday Star, Washington, D.C., October 16, 1921.
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
 
Extra:
Like many other sleuths, Reggie Fortune has his own peculiar personal habits . . .

"Domestic Habits of the Private Eyes."
By Stella Gibbons (1902-89; Wikipedia HERE).
Found in Punch, May 19, 1954.
Article (2 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).
(Note: Text somewhat fuzzy.)

   "This may be overdoing it a bit for most of us, but it's better than weak coffee and dust . . ."

References:
- "the Cheyney hero" (HERE and HERE)
- "the Doctor" (HERE); "Mr. Holmes" (HERE); "Mrs. Hudson" (HERE)
- "Phillip [sic] Marlowe" (HERE)
- "Mr. Reggie Fortune" (HERE)
- "James Bond" (HERE)
- "M. Hercule Poirot" (HERE)
- "Father Brown" (HERE)
- "Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin" (HERE)
- "Mr. Anthony Gilbert's George Crook" (HERE)
- "Lord Peter Wimsey" (HERE)
- "Albert Campion" (HERE); "Magersfontein Lugg" (HERE).
Sources: Wikipedia (HERE), The Thrilling Detective (HERE), and Roy Glashan's Library (HERE).

Resource:
- Our latest meeting with H. C. Bailey was a non-Reggie story, "A Matter of Speculation" (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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Monday, January 20, 2025

"The Distinction Was Lost on the Now Dead Colonel, His Eyes Staring Vacantly Ahead"

"Murder in Space."
By Les Johnson (ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and the author's webpage HERE).
Found in Baen Free Fiction 2021.
Artwork by David A. Hardy
Short story (10 pages as a PDF).
Online (HERE; go to Chapter 8).

   "In cases like this, if murder were involved, then ninety percent of the time the motive was money, sex, or power. He corrected himself; the ninety percent was for men, who committed the most murders. If the perp was a woman, then he could add jealousy to the list and be within the same ninety percent statistic."

"RUSSIA," as Winston Churchill once remarked, "is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Private eye Charlie Shattles is about to find out how mysterious, enigmatic, and just plain baffling things can get in 21st-century Russia—if he doesn't get killed first . . .

Prose moments:
   "Funny how no one was eager to speak with a private investigator. They could not easily put off the police as easily as they could him. They also knew he was not as likely as the police to follow all the rules when conducting his interview and investigation. Such was the life of a PI."
   "He began to channel his inner Dashiell Hammett."
   "For a PI who specialized in space-related cases, Shattles hated going into space."
   "Money—yes. Sex—almost certainly. Power—maybe. The motive was certainly there, but was there opportunity?"
   "Near-death experiences like that just didn’t go away like they did in the entertainment vids where all the ‘tough’ guy or woman needed was a stiff drink and the company of the opposite sex."
   "Sometimes he hated having to always be reading people. He longed for a day that he could take people at face value. Maybe someday . . ."

Main characters:
~ Maksim Kezerashvili ("had gotten himself killed when he and his expensive space yacht became interplanetary dust and gas after the ship’s fusion drive lost containment allowing superheated plasma to rapidly escape from its formerly highly condensed state and vaporize his ship—as unconstrained superheated plasmas were likely to do"), Charlie Shattles ("You want me to investigate the death of your CEO and determine if it was actually an accident and, if not, to help the police catch whoever killed him"), Joseph Bychkov ("If I were you, I would begin with me"), Lada Agapov ("greeted Shattles with a smile and nearly flawless British English") Lana Kezerashvili ("stands to inherit the bulk of his money, including a sizeable number of shares in this company"), Martina Egorov ("A quite simple disagreement"), Roger Grimes ("was unremarkable in appearance, dressed in a heavy black overcoat and wearing an old-fashioned hat reminiscent of what American men might have worn in the 1930s or 40s"), and Viktor Fedorov ("was tall, at least 6’ 2”, had blond hair, green eyes, and looked like he lifted cars in his morning workouts. In other words, his mere presence would intimidate most men and attract most women").

Typo: "did not reach [should be react]".

Comment: PI Charlie Shattles deserves his own book.

References and resource:
- "Proxima Centauri" (HERE)
- "Star City" (HERE)
- "Baikonur Cosmodrome" (HERE)
- "Russian parliament" (HERE)
- "Wernher Von Braun" (HERE)
Artwork by Chesley Bonestell
- "Jeff Bezos" (HERE)
- "cis-lunar" (HERE)
- "the Duma" (HERE).
Source: Wikipedia (HERE).
- Note: "Murder in Space" is set against the background of the author's novel, Saving Proxima (2021):
  "The year is 2072. At the lunar farside radio observatory, an old-school radio broadcast is detected, similar to those broadcast on Earth in the 1940s, but in an unknown language, coming from an impossible source, and originating at an equally impossible location—Proxima Centauri. While the nations of Earth debate making first contact, they learn that the Proximans are facing an extinction-level disaster, forcing a decision: will Earth send a ship on a multiyear trip to provide aid?"
 Go (HERE) for more.

The bottom line:
  It is not in the best interests of any government to tell the truth.

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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Saturday, January 18, 2025

"For One Split Second She Considered Taking a Chance and Shooting It Out"

"Hand in Hand with Murder."
By Norman A. Daniels (1900-95; ONTOS HERE; the GAD Wiki HERE; the IMDb HERE).
First appearance: Mystery Book Magazine, Fall 1948.
Short story (10 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE).

   "Any makeshift grave is a nervous grave, apt to disgorge its contents to the slightest curiosity."

AT THE VERY LEAST a perfect murder calls for careful planning, but that doesn't seem to be a part of this particular discontented housewife's skill set. So she's forced to fall back on unpredictable dumb luck—and for a while it seems to be working. For a while . . .

Principal characters:
~ Nora Bradford ("But I thought—I thought—"), Oswald Bradford ("Oswald, wouldn’t it be funny if they insisted the dead man was you? Think what would happen. You’d be dead, but not dead"), Paul Bradford ("She recognized the squawky voice of Oswald’s older brother"), Aunt Margaret ("promptly fainted dead away"), Oswald's boss ("Nora thought he was a heel, but she did like the way he eyed her"), Mark Edwin ("Nora let him kiss her and found it interesting"), Judith Edwin ("a perfect darling"), and Lieutenant Forsythe ("It’s a lovely evening. A very lovely evening").

References and resources:
- "His draft card—4F he was":
  "Four F is a term that is not commonly used in the military. However, there is a similar term in the military that sounds similar – 4-F. This term was used during the draft era (1940s-1970s) of the United States Armed Forces. During this time, there were physical, mental, and moral requirements that needed to be met in order to serve in the military.
  "4-F was a designation given to individuals who were deemed unfit to serve in the military for physical, mental, or moral reasons. For instance, physical disabilities, illnesses, and medical conditions that would inhibit an individual’s ability to perform military duties would make them eligible for a 4-F deferment.
  "Additionally, individuals with certain mental health conditions such as severe depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia, were also disqualified from service.
  "Furthermore, individuals with a criminal history, drug addiction, or other moral issues were also deemed unfit for service and received a 4-F rating. Essentially, 4-F was a classification indicating that the individual was unfit to serve in the military and thus, not eligible for the draft.
  "It’s worth noting that this classification system is not used anymore, as the draft was abolished in 1973, and the military has transitioned to an all-volunteer force. Instead, today’s military enlistment standards are regulated by medical and fitness standards that apply to all branches of service.
  "Overall, the term 'four F' is not commonly used in the modern military, as it belongs to an outdated classification system from the past." (Coalition Brewing HERE; also see HERE.)
- Other Norman A. Daniels stories that we're pretty sure were his: "The Painted Circle" (HERE; third story); "Satan Turns the Timetables" (HERE; no longer online); "Man Afraid to Die" (HERE); "Medical Murder" (HERE); and "The Trap" (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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Thursday, January 16, 2025

The Butler Did It—No Kidding!

"Your Murder, Sir!"
By John L. Benton (Standard Magazines house pseudonym used by Robert Sidney Bowen, 1900-77; Tom Curry, 1900-76; Norman A. Daniels, 1905-95; Samuel Mines, 1909-98; and Emile C. Tepperman, 1899-1951; take your pick).
First appearance: Thrilling Mystery Novel Magazine, January 1946.
Short story (5 pages).
Online at Archive.org starting (HERE) and finishing (HERE).

   "Williams, the perfect butler, was planning the perfect murder."

IN CLASSIC MYSTERIES the hired help don't commit murders; that would be déclassé, since only important people commit important crimes. But along comes an uppity butler seeking to rise above his position and reap the rewards of a fortune in embezzled funds:

   "Williams had never thought he was going to enjoy the excitement of it so. He guessed he was a natural born actor, and that all this hocus-pocus he was going through now of making believe he had just found the body of his employer was a realization of a long-frustrated urge to act. Often, he knew, when he had been attending to detail on a Hollywood sound stage, he had wished he had been a performer instead of a mere accessory.
   "But there was no doubt about it now. Tonight he was playing the lead role."

There are others, however, who could also be characterized as "natural born" actors, and our perfect butler is about to run into one who will take "the lead role" away from him, upstaging him into a date, fittingly enough, with the gas chamber . . .

Main characters:
~ Williams ("hated detective stories. He thought them thin, stupid, inane—and false both to life and literature. He was nauseously surfeited with listening to them"), Eric Hathway ("Williams, I smell gas!"), Gladys ("Lover, you are so clever!"), the medical examiner ("The time on the note he left—nine-twenty peeyem—corresponds to the actual time of death"), 
and Detective Ferrari ("just to be romantic for a moment").

Resource:
- We encountered other crime fiction ("No Blood") by John L. Benton (whoever he was) (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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Sunday, January 12, 2025

"It Was Now a Cold Problem of Science"

"The Shadow on the Spark."
By Edward S. Sears (?-?; the ISFDb HERE).
First appearance: Amazing Stories, August 1927.
Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).
Illustrated by Aragon (ISFDb HERE).
Novelette (18 pages).
Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE) and Archive.org (HERE; text faded).

   "As he almost fell over the threshold, a shot rang out and a twinge in the left shoulder told him it was a good shot."

JUST BACK FROM his trip to Europe, Dr. Jarvis learns that a close friend has died in surgery. As Jarvis looks further into the situation, he becomes more and more convinced that his friend didn't die of shock on the operating table but was murdered. With a six-figure insurance policy lurking in the background and two likely suspects standing to benefit from it, Jarvis single-handedly turns the coroner's inquest upside down, one that was on the verge of rendering an accidental death verdict, with facts that prove beyond a doubt that it was murder . . .

Typos: "a swift lawford" (?); "the impersonation of innocence" (perhaps "personification" is meant here); "Boss was with him" (Gutenberg only).

Principal characters:
~ Dr. Milton Jarvis ("He was not a judge, merely an instrument of justice"), Jim Craighead ("Well-known banker dies of shock following operation"), Ross Craighead ("the idealistic type—he would be more apt to give money away than try to get it by murder"), Tessie Prettyman ("Our men have watched the girl"), Inspector Craven ("you’ve started me looking for a murder or some crime"), Miss Cornhill ("the head nurse"), Dr. Lawson ("It seemed an eternity before he answered"), Piggy Bill Hovey ("an educated rogue, talks French and is a great student of toxicology"), Mr. Bailey ("if this discussion has any bearing on the death of Jim Craighead, I would like to know"), the coroner ("the fact of poisoning can readily be established by an autopsy"), and Timothy Clegg ("sullenly glared").

References and resources:
- "down in the Tombs":
  "The Tombs was the colloquial name for Manhattan Detention Complex (formerly the Bernard B. Kerik Complex during 2001–2006), a former municipal jail at 125 White Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It was also the nickname for three previous city-run jails in the former Five Points neighborhood of lower Manhattan, in an area now known as the Civic Center." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- Wikipedia links: "Nux vomica" (HERE); "strychnine" (HERE); "digitalis" (HERE); "morphine" (HERE); "opiates" (HERE); "scopolamin" (HERE); and "mydriatic" (HERE).
- "subjected to the third degree":
  "Attested from 1900. The phrase, meaning 'intense interrogation by police,' likely refers to the Third Degree of Master Mason in Freemasonry, the ceremony for which included an interrogation. Alternatively, it reflects the practice of interrogation under torture, where three degrees of torture were recognised, of increasing intensity. In other contexts, three degrees of interrogation were recognised, with torture being the third degree." (Wiktionary HERE.)
- "revolving about the nucleus much as the planets revolve about the sun.":
 "Rutherford's new model for the atom, based on the experimental results, contained new features of a relatively high central charge concentrated into a very small volume in comparison to the rest of the atom and with this central volume containing most of the atom's mass; this region would be known as the atomic nucleus. The Rutherford model was subsequently superseded by the Bohr model." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "the Becquerel Rays" (Wikipedia HERE and HERE), "X-rays" (Wikipedia HERE) "and the various rays known as 'gamma,' etc." (Wikipedia HERE).
 - "the world war":
  "World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914–11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and the Middle East, as well as in parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of tanks and aircraft. World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian dead from causes including genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "Tarrytown":
  "Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately 25 miles (40 km) north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.)
(Click on image to enlarge.)
- "if a man insists on buying liquor, he must go to rather ugly looking places to get it":
  An indirect reference to Prohibition:
  "The Eighteenth Amendment passed in 1919 'with a 68 percent supermajority in the House of Representatives and 76 percent support in the Senate' and was ratified by 46 out of 48 states. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the federal ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. Not all alcohol was banned; for example, religious use of wine was permitted. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, but local laws were stricter in many areas, some states banning possession outright." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "a riot car siren":
  They've been substantially upgraded and up-armed since the 1920s:
  "A riot control vehicle, also known as a riot suppression vehicle or simply a riot vehicle, is an armored or reinforced police vehicle used for riot control. A wide array of vehicles, from armored SUVs and vans to dedicated trucks and armored personnel carriers, are used by law enforcement to suppress or intimidate riots, protests, and public order crimes; hold and reinforce a police barricade to keep the scene contained; or simply transport officers and equipment at the scene in a manner safer than what could be achieved with a standard police car." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "as Webster once said":
  The full quote: "There is no refuge from confession but suicide; and suicide is confession."
  "Daniel Webster (1782–1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th U.S. secretary of state under presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. Webster was one of the most prominent American lawyers of the 19th century, arguing over 200 cases before the United States Supreme Court in his career." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- Edward S. Sears evidently didn't write much (short fiction, anyway) (FictionMags data; ss = short story; nv = novelette.)
  ~ “Poosh ’Im Up, Jardine," (ss) Action Stories, May 1925 (about magazine HERE)
  ~ "The Shadow on the Spark" (Dr. Jarvis and Inspector Craven), (nv) Amazing Stories, August 1927 (above)
  ~ "The Atomic Riddle" (Dr. Jarvis and Inspector Craven), (nv) Amazing Stories Quarterly, Winter 1928 (online HERE)
  ~ "The Singing Moonbeams" (Dr. Jarvis and Inspector Craven), (nv) Amazing Stories Quarterly, Summer 1929 (online 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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Wednesday, January 8, 2025

"Armchair Deduction Is Chancy Stuff, with a Big Element of Luck"

ARTHUR PORGES worked in pulp fiction, mainly concentrating in SFF and crime fiction, sometimes mixing the two. Today's stories are just that, as Porges combines specfic with crimefic, using as "glue" that estimable (and occasional) armchair deducer Professor Ulysses Price Middlebie, a man who is wise enough to heed what . . .

(1) "These Daisies Told."
By Arthur Porges (1915-2006; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and the Fan Site HERE).
First appearance: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM), December 1962.
Reprinted in:
  Behind the Locked Door and Other Strange Tales, 1967
  Alfred Hitchcock Presents: I Am Curious (Bloody), 1971.
  Collected in These Daisies Told: The Casebook of Professor Ulysses Price Middlebie, 2018.
Short short story (8 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 61).

   "Is this guy going to get away with it clean, just because he found some cute way of hiding a hundred pounds of flesh-and-blood right under our noses?"

SERGEANT BLACK is convinced there's a body hidden somewhere on the Corsi ranch, but he's reached the point of exasperation in his unsuccessful hunt for it. It's a long shot, but maybe his old professor can be of help. That, it will become clear, is an understatement . . .

Main characters:
~ Ulysses Price Middlebie, Professor (Emeritus) of the History and Philosophy of Science ("Nobody is ever in a position to know right at the start which data are relevant"), Detective Sergeant Black ("It's the matter of a missing body"), Dale Corsi ("A very competent artist"), and Mrs. Corsi, in absentia ("she owned the ranch and brought scads of money to the marriage").

References and resources:
- "a harmless sluggish Jerusalem Cricket":
  "Despite their common names, these insects are neither true crickets (which belong to the family Gryllidae), nor are they native to Jerusalem. These nocturnal insects use their strong mandibles to feed primarily on dead organic matter but can also eat other insects. Their highly adapted feet are used for burrowing beneath moist soil to feed on decaying root plants and tubers." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "mostly ice-plant":
  "Although the ice plant may have arrived by ship as early as the 16th century, C. edulis was actively introduced in the early 1900s to stabilize dunes and soil along railroad tracks; it was later put to use by Caltrans for ground cover along freeway embankments. Thousands of acres were planted in California until the 1970s."
  "Despite its use as a soil stabilizer, it actually exacerbates and speeds up coastal erosion. It holds great masses of water in its leaves, and its roots are very shallow. In the rainy season, the added weight on unstable sandstone slopes and dunes increases the chances of slope collapse and landslides." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "John Henry himself":
  "John Henry is an American folk hero. An African American freedman, he is said to have worked as a 'steel-driving man'—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into a rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock in constructing a railroad tunnel." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "Purloined letter style, perhaps":
  See ONTOS (HERE and HERE).
- The title is a variation on the universal folklore about daisies keeping secrets—"but these," says the professor, "finally did tell."
- For other commentary about "These Daisies Told" and other Professor Middlebie stories, see The Moonlight Detective (Beneath the Stains of Time) (HERE), Mysteries, Short and Sweet (HERE), and The Invisible Event (HERE).

(2) "The Missing Bow."
By Arthur Porges (1915-2006).
First appearance: AHMM, November 1963.
Reprint page (ISFDb HERE).
Short short story (8 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 17).
(Caution: Extremely poor copy. Eyestrain may result. Using CTRL+ could help.)

   "In theory the puzzle was solved, but getting a conviction was not so simple."

THE PRIME SUSPECT in a murder case, a one-armed man, is as prime as they come. Sergeant Black is certain he did it and goes to his old professor to help him prove it. All of the circumstantial evidence, however, indicates that the man couldn't have done it, leaving it up to Professor Middlebie to show how, one-armed or not, it was indeed doable . . .

Main characters:
~ Victor Borden, deceased ("They knew Borden had been drinking and speeding"), Howard Cole ("A vanishing breed"), Sergeant Black ("Good hunting, sir"), and Professor Middlebie ("How odd that a book sixty years old should hold the secret to a recent murder").

References:
- "an expert archer":
  "When a projectile is thrown by hand, the speed of the projectile is determined by the kinetic energy imparted by the thrower's muscles performing work. However, the energy must be imparted over a limited distance (determined by arm length) and therefore (because the projectile is accelerating) over a limited time, so the limiting factor is not work but rather power, which determines how much energy can be added in the limited time available. Power generated by muscles, however, is limited by force–velocity relationship, and even at the optimal contraction speed for power production, total work by the muscle is less than half of what it would be if the muscle contracted over the same distance at slow speeds, resulting in less than 1/4 the projectile launch velocity possible without the limitations of the force–velocity relationship.
  "When a bow is used, the muscles are able to perform work much more slowly, resulting in greater force and greater work done. This work is stored in the bow as elastic potential energy, and when the bowstring is released, this stored energy is imparted to the arrow much more quickly than can be delivered by the muscles, resulting in much higher velocity and, hence, greater distance." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "Errol Flynn's 'Robin Hood'":
  "The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American epic swashbuckler film from Warner Brothers Pictures. . . . It stars Errol Flynn as the legendary Saxon knight Robin Hood, who in Richard I's absence in the Holy Land during the Crusades, fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla band against Prince John and the Norman lords oppressing the Saxon commoners." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "Not even Faraday and Pasteur":
  "Michael Faraday (1791–1867) was an English physicist and chemist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. Although Faraday received little formal education, as a self-made man, he was one of the most influential scientists in history." (Wikipedia HERE.)
  "Louis Pasteur (1822–95) was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which was named after him. His research in chemistry led to remarkable breakthroughs in the understanding of the causes and preventions of diseases, which laid down the foundations of hygiene, public health and much of modern medicine. Pasteur's works are credited with saving millions of lives through the developments of vaccines for rabies and anthrax." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "a slide-rule":
  "English mathematician and clergyman Reverend William Oughtred and others developed the slide rule in the 17th century based on the emerging work on logarithms by John Napier. It made calculations faster and less error-prone than evaluating on paper. Before the advent of the scientific pocket calculator, it was the most commonly used calculation tool in science and engineering. The slide rule's ease of use, ready availability, and low cost caused its use to continue to grow through the 1950s and 1960s, even as desktop electronic computers were gradually introduced. But after the handheld scientific calculator was introduced in 1972 and became inexpensive in the mid-1970s, slide rules became largely obsolete, so most suppliers departed the business." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "as certain as Newton's Laws":
  "Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws, which provide the basis for Newtonian mechanics, can be paraphrased as follows:
  "A body remains at rest, or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, except insofar as it is acted upon by a force.
  "At any instant of time, the net force on a body is equal to the rate at which the body's momentum is changing with time.
  "If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces have the same magnitude but opposite directions." (Wikipedia HERE.)
(Click on image to enlarge.)
- About this story, JJ says:
   "The first inevitable duff comes with ‘The Missing Bow’ (1963), in which a man is arrested for shooting a (most deserving) victim with an arrow . . . and yet, despite no time or place to hide anything he has no bow on him and there’s no evidence of how the arrow was otherwise projected with the necessary force. The ending here is notable for how [it] diverges from Porges’ usual tone, but the solution, while no doubt smart, feels a little cheap. Still, I’m a fan of my genius amateur detective having to do some research rather than falling back on his infallible hypermnesia to pluck the answer out of nowhere, so that helps soften the blow somewhat." - JJ at The Invisible Event (HERE).

(3) "A Model Crime."
By Arthur Porges (1915-2006).
First appearance: AHMM, August 1964.
Short short story (8 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 33.)

   "Even Mycroft needed Sherlock's data to accomplish anything."

IN A CASE very similar to one investigated by Ellery Queen (the detective), Sergeant Black and Professor Middlebie brainstorm their way through a knotty problem of how expensive electronic transistors have been stolen right out from under plant security's nose, without a single suspect in sight . . .

Main characters:
~ Sergeant Black ("I'm beginning to worry about you, Professor"), Professor Middlebie ("I'm on the side of imagination and ingenuity"), and R. T. Brenner ("in these recent biographical notes you and your men made, he never said a word about such a hobby").

References and resources:
- "even for transistors, small as they are":
  "A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics.
  "Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more in miniature form are found embedded in integrated circuits. Because transistors are the key active components in practically all modern electronics, many people consider them one of the 20th century's greatest inventions." (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)
- "like Mendel's or Einstein's":
  "Gregor Johann Mendel (1822–1884) was an Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brno (Brünn), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel was born in a German-speaking family in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire (today's Czech Republic) and gained posthumous recognition as the founder of the modern science of genetics. Though farmers had known for millennia that crossbreeding of animals and plants could favor certain desirable traits, Mendel's pea plant experiments conducted between 1856 and 1863 established many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance." (Wikipedia HERE.)
  "Albert Einstein (1879–1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from special relativity, has been called 'the world's most famous equation'. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "the Socratic method":
  "The Socratic method (also known as the method of Elenchus or Socratic debate) is a form of argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions. Socratic dialogues feature in many of the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, where his teacher Socrates debates various philosophical issues with an 'interlocutor' or 'partner'." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "Mycroft's blood pressure":
  "Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character appearing in stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1893 to 1908. The elder brother (by seven years) of detective Sherlock Holmes, he is a government official and a founding member of the Diogenes Club. Mycroft is described as having abilities of deduction and knowledge exceeding even those of his brother, though their practical use is limited by his dislike of fieldwork." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "hooking a man off the ground in a harness":
  "The Skyhook has been featured in a number of films and video games. It was seen in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, where James Bond and his companion Domino Derval are rescued at sea by a modified Boeing B-17 equipped with the Fulton system at the end of the movie. In 1968, it was used in the John Wayne movie The Green Berets to spirit a VC officer to South Vietnam." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "a dust-free routine":
  "A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space that maintains a very low concentration of airborne particulates. It is well isolated, well controlled from contamination, and actively cleansed. Such rooms are commonly needed for scientific research and in industrial production for all nanoscale processes, such as semiconductor device manufacturing. A cleanroom is designed to keep everything from dust to airborne organisms or vaporised particles away from it, and so from whatever material is being handled inside it." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "new cadmium batteries":
  "Model-aircraft or -boat builders often take much larger currents of up to a hundred amps or so from specially constructed Ni–Cd batteries, which are used to drive main motors; 5–6 minutes of model operation is easily achievable from quite small batteries, so a reasonably high power-to-weight figure is achieved, comparable to internal combustion motors, though of lesser duration." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- "watching the avocets":
  "Avocets have long legs and long, thin, upcurved bills which they sweep from side to side when feeding in the brackish or saline wetlands they prefer. Their plumage is pied, sometimes also with some red." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- The readily-available Prof. Ulysses Price Middlebie stories (FictionMags data; ss = short story):
  (1) "These Daisies Told," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, December 1962 (above)
  (2) "The Missing Bow," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November 1963 (above)
  (3) "A Model Crime," (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, August 1964 (above).
- Other ONTOS encounters with Arthur Porges:
  ~ "A Small Favor" with "No Killer Has Wings" (HERE)
  ~ "Revenge" with "One Bad Habit" (HERE)
  ~ "Chain Smoker" (HERE)
  ~ "The Scientist and the Bagful of Water" (HERE)
  ~ "The Cunning Cashier" (HERE)
  ~ and "Birds of One Feather" (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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