Spacemen Never Die!

Henry Weller married Phoebe knowing she'd loved another man first, a hero no less - Don Manton, the legendary astronaut who walked on Mars while Earth wept his name. Twelve years dead, Manton should be no threat. But there's a three-dimensional portrait in Henry's own home, a crystal-clear projection that haunts him with the face of the spaceman he can never defeat. In this 1950s tomorrow where rockets punctuate the skyline and martini hours stretch long, Henry finds himself in a strangely petty war with a corpse. When friends nudge him toward the truth about Manton, he discovers the hero was all too human - his marriage to Phoebe a battlefield, not a fairy tale. Hershman delivers a sharp, surprisingly touching tale about how we build our rivals larger than life, and what happens when we finally see them clearly. The secret at the end is a gem of retro irony, perfect for its era while still landing today.