Paul W. Fairman 22 min read

It's the not-knowing that gets you, whether you've been suckered, or let the biggest thing since fingerprints slide right past. Two Homicide cops never find out.

Paul W. Fairman's 1956 story opens on a bizarre Tenth Avenue barroom murder that the papers never fully explained, narrated by a detective haunted by the unresolved. Sharp, noir-tinged social SF. Read it for a wry golden-age tale about a case, and a wonder, that may never be solved.

In its time

Published in 1956, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

22 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry