"What the Blazes Did You Say to Him, Ford?"

(1) "The Singular Occurrence at Styles."

By Alan Henry (John Jakes, 1932-2023; Wikipedia HERE; ISFDB HERE; and the SFE HERE).

First appearance: Tales of the Frightened No. 1, Spring 1957.

No known reprints.

Short short short story (4 pages as a PDF).

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE).

   "Now at last, since all other peaks had been left far below, he was ready to ascend this final pinnacle, and kill another human being for the sheer intellectual joy of finding out how one felt as one did it."

A hard lesson learned the hard way: "But then there’s always danger, when you write about something with which you’re not familiar." 

Principal characters:

- Newsome Holder, the young man, John Richardson Ford, and P. C. Finch.

References:

- "a troop of be-plumed Cavaliers" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "Oxford dons" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "a baby’s perambulator": In Britain it's usually called a pram. (HERE; Wikipedia).

Resources:

- We've encountered the real John Jakes before, when he was writing under his own name: "Coffins to Mars" (HERE), "With Intent to Kill" (HERE), "Half-Past Fear" (HERE), and "Hero at Work" and "Night of the Robots" (both HERE).

(2) "The Most Dangerous Man."

By Edward D. Hoch (1930-2008; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDB HERE; the SFE HERE; and the IMDb HERE, 7 credits).

Reprinted in Last Laughs: The 1986 Mystery Writers of America Anthology (1986) (today's text).

Other reprints:

Ellery Queen’s Murdercade, 1975.

The Penguin Classic Crime Omnibus, 1984.

The Sherlock Holmes Stories of Edward D. Hoch, 2008.

Short short story (8 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 55).

   "That man is a devil!"

WE won't belabor the point about how best-laid plans often go south. Why should we, when "a tall, sharp-featured man" with "long white fingers" is there to make it happen?

Principal characters:

~ The professor, Dwiggins, Coxe, Quinn, Moran, Jenkins, and Archibald Andrews.

References:

- "the binomial theorem" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "Covent Garden" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "His hansom" (HERE; Wikipedia).

- "hidden in his walking-stick” (HERE; Wikipedia).

Resources:

- The professor in our story often concerned himself with esoteric matters; see (HERE) for more.

- Our latest contact with Edward D. Hoch was his Simon Ark story, "The Hoofs of Satan" (HERE).

The bottom line:

"Nobody—and I mean nobody—could twerk like her."

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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