Jack Sharkey 18 min read

Nosy, kind-hearted landlady Mrs. Tibbets can't keep out of her tenants' business, and her incurable worrying is about to prove very unfortunate indeed for the pale, secretive Mr. Thobal.

Jack Sharkey's 1959 story is a wry first-contact and horror tale. Clever, creepy golden-age SF. Read it for a neat, ironic story where a meddlesome landlady's curiosity leads her to a chilling discovery about her strange tenant, in a well-turned golden-age piece that turns nosiness into genuine menace.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Leo Summers