Somebody had nailed Moke Rahone to his Desk. . . . Moke Rahone’d been human, and someone had butchered him open. It was dainty-like. Real bodysnatcher work, done with something sharp—something that didn’t burn like a pocket laser or chew up the meat like a vibro. And there was one other thing. It was sticking up out of Rahone’s insides and it hadn’t been part of his original manifest. It might tell me who killed him, and who might be interested in taking over the cargo I had for him. I pulled off my glove and yanked out the optional extra somebody’d left with Brother Rahone. What I got for my trouble was long and thin, pointed at one end and with feathers at the other. It was mostly red, but where it was dry it was a kind of blue animal bone with carving on it. I’d seen bone like that before. Hellflower work! I’d just shut the door on the inner room behind me when the outer door opened. The hellflower standing there wasn’t Tiggy, but he looked real pleased to see me anyway. “Ea, higna,” the hellflower said. Then he went for his heat. . . .

It looked as innocent as a gardenia...but the Hellflower’s perfume turned any woman into any man’s woman. The haunting, pungent scent aroused desires too fierce to be slaked by ordinary passions—and left its victims burnt-out husks! Charles Farradyne knew that no woman could resist the Hellflower. Yet Carolyn, the girl he wanted above all to possess, smiled when he gave her the deadly bloom—smiled and inhaled the perfumed poison. Hellflower is the fantastic story of a lovely woman who was not quite human—and of a man who went through heaven and hell to win her.

Charles Farradyne had crashed a spaceship into The Bog on Venus. Thirty-two people died -- and the only excuse he had was a wild story of sabotage in the control room. He was done for, unless he cleared himself...whatever the cost!

TWO SHIPS SAT ON THE FIELD They was 'leggers and pirates equipped with the standard box of tricks. Tractors to lock them on to a ship or free-floating cargo, guns that could angle to protect a ship on the ground. And a nasty sense of civic duty. They was going to hold us on the heavy-side and hammer us to death. They hoped. I gave Ghost Dance all the go-devils in the inventory, to where I was sure something was going to cut loose and blow. She started pulling away, and the view-screens went fade-to-black as the darktraders on the field gunned their engines to hold her. I opened a wide channel. Both ships would hear it. “This is Ghost Dance. We’ve got fifteen plates of goforth and nothing to lose. You boys want to be serious nonfiction you just hang on; I guarantee to wrap you around the first lamppost in angeltown.’’ No answer. Just the howl of an open circuit. Dance was starting to shake. “I mean it. When you forged your First Tickets, anybody tell you what happens you Jump too deep in a gravity well?” Silence. “Want to find out?”

Our 59th issue puts us firmly into one of the happiest seasons of the year, Halloween! So fun and frights abound, with extra spooky content—starting with “Ghost Writers in the Sky,” an original tale by Steve Liskow, courtesy of Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken. (It does double-duty as mystery and fantasy, as does Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman’s pick, “Deal Breaker,” by Justin Gustainis.) Alas, we have no selection from Cynthia Ward this time, but hopefully she will be back in short order. I picked up one of my favorite dark fantasies by another Acquiring Editor to fill the hole: “Peeling It Off,” by Darrell Schweitzer. Plus an uncanny tale by A.R. Morlan that would have been at home in Weird Tales, then a Victorian-era occult novel by Marie Corelli round things out. For fans of traditional mysteries, we have a pair of great private detective novels: About Face, by Frank Kane, and a vintage Nick Carter novel from 1903. On the science fiction side, we have contributions by Murray Leinster and a novel by George O. Smith. Overall, this is one of our most eclectic issues, but there is bound to be more than a few tales to suit everyone’s taste. Here’s the complete lineup: Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Ghost Writers in the Sky,” by Steve Liskow [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “Point, Set, Match,” Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “Deal Breaker,” by Justin Gustainis [Barb Goffman Presents short story] Toying with Fate, by Nicholas Carter About Face, by Frank Kane [novel] Science Fiction & Fantasy: “Ghost Writers in the Sky,” by Steve Liskow [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “Deal Breaker,” by Justin Gustainis [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “Peeling It Off,” by Darrell Schweitzer [novelet] “The Cat Tracker Lady of Asad Alley,” by A.R. Morlan [short story] “The Nameless Something,” by Murray Leinster [novelet] The Hellflower, by George O. Smith [novel] The Sorrows of Satan, by Marie Corelli [novel]

Seasoned smuggler Butterfly St. Cyr is targeted for execution when she tries to rescue young hellflower Tiggy Stardust, and even the most powerful artificial intelligence in the universe might not be enough to save her