Murderer's Chain

Greed makes men desperate, and desperation makes them stupid. Our protagonist is broke, humiliated, and watching his chance at the stars slip away. His wealthy mother-in-law Maudie refuses to fund his venture to Balsavius Six, so he acquires something rare and deadly: a necklace made of Malutrex, a substance that kills without leaving a trace. The plan is elegant. The execution is flawless. The consequences are catastrophic. Wenzell Brown's 1960 crime novel lives in a curious space between hardboiled noir and pulp science fiction. Mars is real, Balsavius Six is the frontier, and greed travels as easily between planets as people do. But the real twist comes when the detective assigned to Maudie's death isn't human at all. Lieutenant Onsett is Martian, and he's been watching all along. For readers who want their crime fiction with a side of Sputnik-era speculation, or their science fiction with the moral rot of a true crime chapter.