Zed Reckoning

"Spelled Guilty."

By Dave Grinnell (?-?).

First appearance: 10-Story Detective, July 1947.

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 20).

(Note: Some text smudging but interpretable.)

   "'Well,' said Corazel, leaning back and lighting his pipe, 'when I was in England, I noticed a little thing that had not occurred to me before'."

TODAY'S sleuth joins the likes of C. Auguste Dupin, The Old Man in the Corner, Mycroft Holmes, and Nero Wolfe in solving a crime without moving more than a few feet. All it 

takes is a phone call and a head for trivia . . .

Principal characters:

~ Detective Lieutenant William Corazel ("The old-timer with the keen-honed brain"), 

Diamond Bert ("no one knew who he was or what he looked like"), and the Chief 

("How do you know?").

Typo: "barked the Chief Chief right back".

Resources:

- Wikipedia has a short article about armchair detectives (HERE).

- The nom de plume "Dave Grinnell" is too close to "David Grinnell," one of many pen names often used by SFF uberpulpster Donald A. Wollheim (1914-90), for us not to conclude that he was "Dave Grinnell," but it's not certain. Regardless, "Dave Grinnell" produced nine crime fiction tales for Ten Detective Aces and 10-Story Detective Magazine in 1945-47 (FictionMags data; vi = vignette; ss = short story):

  "Gunfire Promotion," (vi) Ten Detective Aces, March 1945

  "The Devil Is a Magician," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, September 1946

  "Put a Lid on Lora," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, November 1946

  "Fright Night," (ss) Ten Detective Aces, February 1947

  "Crawling Clues," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, March 1947

  "Nemesis Unseen," (ss) Ten Detective Aces, April 1947

  "Spelled Guilty," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, July 1947 (above)

  "B.H.’s Slaughter," (ss) Ten Detective Aces, September 1947

  "Remember Me to Roscoe," (ss) 10-Story Detective Magazine, October 1947.

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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