John Berryman 46 min read

It takes a thief to catch a thief, but what does it take to catch a psi-gifted thief? For the snake-hating narrator, it means enduring the illusory rattlesnakes a trainee keeps conjuring on his rug.

John Berryman's 1960 story is a clever psi-powers and social-SF tale. Sharp, engaging golden-age SF. Read it for an inventive entry in Berryman's psi-detective vein, where agents with paranormal gifts are trained to catch paranormal criminals, blending mystery, humor, and speculation, in a well-turned golden-age piece about talent, fear, and the hunt for a gifted crook.

In its time

Published in 1960, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

46 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Petrizzo