Black Cat Weekly #128

This issue has one of the best original stories we’ve published: Janet Law’s brilliant “Wrong Door,” a tale very much in the classic Twilight Zone tradition. Don’t skip it! Though Janice is best known for her mystery stories, this one proves she can write masterfully in any genre.

But great stories don’t stop there. Our Acquiring Editors, Michael Bracken and Barb Goffman, have both found original stories this time—from William Burton McCormick and Steve Janko. Plus I’m pleased to present another new mystery story from the late Henry T. Parry. Parry was very much a hobbyist writer for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. His work started appearing there in the 1960s, and if the editor didn’t buy a story, he set it aside and moved on to another one. He didn’t send them to other markets, like any pro writer would have done. His daughter has entrusted his unpublished stories to me, and I am going through them and seeing which ones still work. (His last story appeared here in BCW #105.) I date “The Marina Case” to the early 1970s, and it’s a solid mystery that surely would have found a home had he submitted it to more than one editor.

Our mystery novel this time is William Le Queux’s The Crystal Claw, a Golden Age page-turner. And, as always, we have a solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles.

Turning back to the science fiction end of things, in addition to Janice Law’s tale, we have classics by Hannes Bok (miners on Venus!), William W. Stuart (a man wakes in a futuristic jail with no memory of how he got there!), and Charles L. Fontenay (envy leads to discovering an Earthman’s secrets!). Our SF novelet is an early space adventure from fantastist Manly Wade Wellman.

Here’s the complete lineup—

Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure:

“Letter From a Lone Prospector to His Mother,” by William Burton McCormick [Michael Bracken Presents short story]

“The Wild West Whodunit,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery]

“Confessions of an Invisible Hit Man,” by Steve Janko [Barb Goffman Presents short story]

“Grass Is Not Always Green,” by Henry T. Parry [short story]

The Crystal Claw, by William Le Queux [novel]

Science Fiction & Fantasy:

“Wrong Door,” by Janice Law [short story]

“One Touch of Terra,” by Hannes Bok [short story]

“A Prison Make,” by William W. Stuart [short story]

“Beauty Interrupted” by Charles L. Fontenay [short story]

The Invading Asteroid, by Manly Wade Wellman [short novel]