Rocket to the Morgue

 

Rocket to the Morgue (1942) was originally published in 1942 under the pseudonym H.H. Holmes. The author was actually mystery writer and critic Anthony Boucher.

Rocket to the Morgue is both an excellent locked room mystery with great protagonists (homicide detective Terry Marshall and smart-as-a-whip nun Sister Ursula), it also gives us insights into the world of science fiction as it existed in pre-war America, with a look both at the writers/editors and the enthusiastic fandom. 

[By the way, I didn't realizes until after I started reading this that there is a previous book featuring Marshall and Sister Ursula titled Nine Times Nine. Normally, I'm pretty obsessive about reading books in order. But both books are independent enough in terms of their plots so that it doesn't matter. I'll read Nine Times Nine soon and do appropriate penance to the International Society for Reading Books in Their Proper Order.]

Most of the characters involved in the murder investigations are based directly on the writers, editors and agents of the day.  Though their names and the titles of their works are different, suspects in the murder investigation include Robert Heinlein, Edmund Hamilton and an agent who might be either Julius Schwartz or Forry Ackerman. For those of us who are fans of pulp fiction and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, this book is dripping with pure fun. 

Boucher was a superb mystery writer and an important critic of the genre, but he was also familiar with science fiction and with the world of professional writers in general. I especially like Austin Carter--the Heinlein character--and if Boucher had used Heinlein himself instead of a stand-in, I would have believed it completely. He catches Heinlein's personality perfectly. 

[Book recommendation: To learn more about the history of SF, read Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, by Alec Nevela-Lee.]

Boucher also introduces several characters who give us insights into the enthusiastic fandom of SF.

So he was the perfect author for this book, giving the background of the plot both a realistic and fascinating ambiance. 

In raving about the book's background, I'm short-changing the actually mystery. The son of a famous, now deceased SF author is making enemies in the publishing world, ticking off both writers and editors over his handling of his dad's estate and his tendency to take petty revenge on people. When someone tries to kill him, there is no shortage of suspects. Also, it is soon apparent that this attempted murder ties in with an earlier murder that happened in a seedy hotel. But what this connection is remains a mystery. A bigger mystery is how the attempted murder was carried out--the victim was in a room alone and a door locked from the inside seems to prove that no one else was in the room with him. He didn't see or hear his assailant--he just suddenly had a knife plunged into his back.

It's all great stuff, leading to a successful murder while an experimental rocket is being tested, which in turn leads to the mystery's elegant solution. 

Read Rocket to the Morgue. But, for heaven's sake, read Nine Times Nine first. Don't get on the bad side of the International Society for Reading Books in Their Proper Order. It's not a nice place to be.