SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: MURDER, 1990

"Murder, 1990" by C. B. Gilford  (from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, October 1960; reprinted in The Best Detective Stories of the Year:  16th Annual Collection, edited by Bret Halliday, 1961; in Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology #1, 1977 edition [also published as Alfred Hitchcock's Tales to Keep You Spellbound]. edited by Eleanor Sullivan, 1976; in Dark Sins, Dark Dreams, edited by Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini, 1978; the story was taken from the Malzberg/Pronzini amthology and published in Romanain in 1987 as "Omor in 2020" ["Murder, 2090"], translated by Andriana Fianu; in Alfred Hitchcock:  The Best of Mystery, Harold Q. Masur, uncredited editor, 1980; and in the British paperback Alfred Hitchcock's Book of Horror Stories:  Book 9,  edited by Eleanor Sullivan, 1989)

"The case of Paul 2473 really began when he discovered the old book.  He recognized it instantly for what it was, because he had once been through the Micro-filming Section where they were recording some old-fashioned but worthy volumes on genetics before destroying them.  But the sight of this book, obviously an unsuspected relic of the dim past, provoked a simultaneous curiosity and dread in him."

He discovered the book while marching withn his Thursday Exercise Platoon; it was hidden in a crumbling wall where he had sat down to rest.  His duty, of cojurse, was to turn the book over to his Platoon Leader without looking at -- old books could be either valuable or dangerous, and it was not Paul 2473's place to decide which.  Instead, he looked at the title -- The Logic of Murder -- which confused him: he had a vague idea of what "logic" meant, but "murder" was a word totally unfamiliar to him.  Paul 2473 stuck the book inside his shirt and continued the march.

In reading the book, he was amazed to find that once there was a society where peoplpe shoise their mates at random, which sometimes lead to the unthinkasble act of taking human life, or that the government did not provide for all needs of its people, leading to murder being ciommitted to acquire wealth.  Barbaric!  "As he read on, Paul was treated to the full panarama of homicidal motivations, both sane and inseane.  There was a chapter on methods of murder.   There sections on the detection, apprehension, and punishment of murders."   Paul also learned tha many murderers -- especially those who planned their crimes well beforehand -- were never caufght.  Good to know.

:Paul had been seeing Carol 7427 reguklarly at Recreation, and had enven gone ito the Caressiong Booths with her.  They had taken the Campatibilty tests together and Paul was hoping for a Three-Year assigment with her, or, possibly, a Five-Year Assignment.  But when the Mating Assignments came out, Paul was paired with Laura 6356, and Carol with Richard 3833.  It just wasn't fair!  but Paul had the book...

A dystopian murder tale pushing all the predicted buttons, with a fittingly ironic ending.

Charles Bernard Gilford (1920- 2010) was a prolific writer of mystery stories from 1953 through 1975, 94 of which appeared in AHMM, and 41 of which appeared in Hitchcock anthologies.  Twelve years before publishing mysteries, however, he published a science fiction novel, The Liquid Man,  in Fantastic Adventures, which was eventually released in book form in 1969.   Gilford also used the pen name "Douglas Farr."  The Fictionmags Index also lists "Jack Webb" as a pseudonym, but this is most likely an error.  John Alfred  Webb (1916-2008 -- not the Dragnet Jack Webb guy) authored nine popular mysteriess about Sammy Golden and Father Joseph Shanley, plus two other novels under his own name and four novels as by "John Farr."  I suspect it was the work under the "Farr" pseudonym which caused the confusion.

Gilford was a talented short story writer and a retrospective of his work would not be amiss.

The October 1960 issue of AHMM  is available online at Luminist Archives.