Mr. Satterthwaite witnesses a brutal fight outside an opera house. What could have caused such behaviour?

Today's story is The Face of Helen, by Agatha Christie. It appeared in the July 1951 issue of Black Mask Detective Magazine on pages 37 to 48.

The Face of Helen was first published in "The Story-Teller," a monthly British pulp fiction magazine which ran from 1907 to 1937, in April 1927.

With thanks to the Agatha Chrsitie Wiki at agathchristie.fandom.com.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952.

A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction," Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery." She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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She was the last priestess of Asti, and the barbarians were approching. She had no choice but to escape to the surface world, taking with her the gifts of Asti. She wasn't to know, however, that one more ancient gift awaited her on the surface...

"The Gifts of Asti" appeared in "Fantasy Book" vol. 1, no. 3 in 1948, pages 8 - 17.

Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew North and Allen Weston. She was the first woman to be Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, to be SFWA Grand Master, and to be inducted by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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All Ed Blair wanted was a fluff piece, a brightener for page two of the Tokyo Tribune, for which he was a reporter. His Editor, Murdock, had heard stories of the 'magic tricks' that the monks of the Hataka Shrine could do.

"The Shrine" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," December 1956, pages 77 - 86.

Walter James Sheldon (9 January 1917 - 9 June 1996) was an American author of science fiction. He is best known for his novel "Jimsy and the Monsters."

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Being a wizard missionary to the Free'l needed more than magic—it called for a miracle!

Today's story is The Autumn After Next, by Margaret St Clair. It appeared in the January 1960 issue of Worlds of If Science Fiction on pages 101 to 107.

Margaret St Clair (17 February 1911, Hutchinson, Kansas – 22 November 1995, Santa Rosa, California) was an American fantasy and science fiction writer who also wrote under the pseudonyms Idris Seabright and (on one occasion) Wilton Hazzard.

St. Clair wrote and published, by her own count, some 130 short stories. She first tried her hand at detective and mystery stories, and the so-called 'quality' stories, before finding her niche writing fantasy and science fiction for pulp magazines. She wrote "Unlike most pulp writers, I have no special ambitions to make the pages of the slick magazines. I feel that the pulps at their best touch a genuine folk tradition and have a balladic quality which the slicks lack."

Her early output included the Oona and Jick series of eight stories published from 1947 to 1949, chronicling the comic misadventures of "housewife of the future" Oona and her devoted husband Jick. The stories were ostensibly set in an idealized future but cast a satirical look at post-war domestic life, with its focus on acquiring labor-saving household devices and "keeping up with the Joneses."

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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All inventors seek success. Some few achieve it. And now and then a Quintus Maugham is a bit too successful for his own health.

"The Maugham Obsession" appeared in "Fantastic Universe," June-July 1953, pages 107 - 115.

August William Derleth (February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971) was an American writer and anthologist. He was the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. He made contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the cosmic horror genre and helped found the publisher Arkham House (which did much to bring supernatural fiction into print in hardcover in the US that had only been readily available in the UK). Derleth was also a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography.

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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The human race has deteriorated, and will die when the machines that have kept them alive in Subterannea for tens of millennia after the supposed death of the Sun eventually stop working. But there are those who believe that the Sun did not die, and the survival of humanity depends on it once again venturing Outside.

"If the Sun Died" appeared in "Astounding Stories," August 1931, pages 198 - 213.

Roman Frederick Starzl (1899–1976) was an American writer. He, and earlier, his father (John V. Starzl), owned the Le Mars Globe-Post newspaper of Le Mars, Iowa. His writing is largely forgotten now, but he was called a "master" by the pioneer of space opera E. E. "Doc" Smith. Starzl's Interplanetary Flying Patrol, in "The Hornets of Space," may have influenced Smith's Galactic Patrol.

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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Agent Cameron had the unenviable task of protecting the Galactic Capitol building from the Damakoi, fanatical beings 70 percent of whom hated the Galactic Federation and all it stood for. And now he had one of the Damakoi in front of him, warning him of a plot by another Damakoi to deploy a Theta Bomb inside the Capitol building. But, knowing the Damakoi well, he wasn't taking any chances.

"Deadly Decoy" appeared in "Amazing Stories," February 1957, pages 48 - 65.

Robert Silverberg (born January 15, 1935) is an American author and editor, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Grand Master of SF. He has attended every Hugo Award ceremony since the inaugural event in 1953.

Gordon Randall Phillip David Garrett (December 16, 1927 – December 31, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. He is best known for the Lord Darcy books set in an alternate world where a joint Anglo-French empire still led by a Plantagenet dynasty has survived into the twentieth century and where magic works and has been scientifically codified. Lord Darcy is modeled on Sherlock Holmes. The short novel Brain Twister, written by Garrett with author Laurence Janifer (using the joint pseudonym Mark Phillips), was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960.

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"Mesmerizing Galaxy" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a genre you'd like me to include more of, please let me know using the Contact Form.