Alex Lella's Blog

Man in the Dark

Atheling-Blish's next target was the Fall 1952 issue of a magazine called Fantastic. The first story he attacked was
Man in the Dark by Roy Huggins. I had never heard of Roy Huggins , but when I Googled him I learned that he was a television writer producer who created, among other things, The Fugitive

The story is about a man who receives word that his wife's car has met with a fatal accident. One problem. He spoke with his wife on the telephone just a few minutes before the police called. As Atheling pointed out, this is a mystery. Unlike Atheling, I found it an enjoyable one. Sure as Atheling mentions, there is a great deal of prose spent describing smoking. That was a pet peeve of Atheling. Also there is a horny female character in it for no good reason, but there is also some interesting deduction and clues to learn about what happened.

That said, I have to agree with Atheling's main complaint which can be paraphrased as, "How the Hell did a story like this get into a Science Fiction magazine?". The editor's introduction implies that the mysterious phone call has a supernatural explanation in which case it would be a ghost story, but SPOILER ALERT: it turns out to be perfectly rational.

Atheling reviewed four more stories from that issue of the magazine. Stay tuned for entries about them.