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Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Galaxy Magazine, October 1965. It was reprinted in Fantasy Book, September 1985.

Perhaps best known for editing the popular post-World War II magazines Galaxy Science Fiction and Beyond Fantasy Fiction, Horace L. Gold also wrote comic-book scripts for DC Comics and penned numerous pulp adventures and science-fiction stories. Perfect Murders, a collection of seven of these stories, captures the timeless emotions evoked by pulp and science fiction for the twenty-first century. Though the main character is always called Gilroy, his identity shifts from story to story: the horserace handicapper fighting for his dame, the private eye sussing out the murderer, or the hard-boiled journalist exposing the mad scientist. And though Gold uses the traditional genres--time travel, Armageddon, science gone awry, murder, extraterrestrials--Perfect Murders is nothing less than a horrific, page-turning, fictional thrill ride engineered by one of the leading science-fiction writers and editors of the mid-twentieth century. The Bison Books edition is introduced by Gold's son, E. J. Gold, offering a new perspective on these classic stories.

Contents:

• vii - Introduction (Perfect Murders) - (2010) - essay by E. J. Gold
• 1 - At the Post - (1953) - novelette by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 59 - I Know Suicide - (1947) - shortstory by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 83 - Love in the Dark - (1951) - shortstory by H. L. Gold (variant of Love Ethereal) [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 107 - A Matter of Form - (1938) - novella by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 205 - The Old Die Rich - (1953) - novella by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 287 - Perfect Murder - (1940) - shortstory by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]
• 297 - Problem in Murder - (1939) - novelette by H. L. Gold [as by Horace L. Gold ]

Table of Contents:

• Personal Account - essay by H. L. Gold
• It Happened Tomorrow - essay by H. L. Gold
• Honeymoon in Hell - (1950) - novelette by Fredric Brown
• Coming Attraction - (1950) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Rule of Three - (1951) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• Third from the Sun - (1950) - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• The Last Martian - (1950) - shortstory by Fredric Brown
• Sooner Than You Think - essay by H. L. Gold
• Jaywalker - (1950) - shortstory by Ross Rocklynne
• The Reluctant Heroes - (1951) - novelette by Frank M. Robinson
• A Little Journey - (1951) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• Venus Is a Man's World - (1951) - novelette by William Tenn
• The Worlds We Made - essay by H. L. Gold
• Beyond Bedlam - (1951) - novella by Wyman Guin
• The Stars Are the Styx - (1950) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• Inside Earth - (1951) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• I, the Unspeakable - (1951) - novelette by Walt Sheldon
• Aren't You an Extraterrestrial - essay by H. L. Gold
• The Pilot and the Bushman - (1951) - novelette by Sylvia Jacobs
• Judas Ram - shortstory by Sam Merwin, Jr. [as by Sam Merwin ]
• Hostess - (1951) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• Betelgeuse Bridge - (1951) - shortstory by William Tenn
• Cabin Boy - (1951) - novelette by Damon Knight
• Field Study - (1951) - shortstory by Peter Phillips
• Let's Build Somebody - essay by H. L. Gold
• Good Night, Mr. James - (1951) - novelette by Clifford D. Simak
• Syndrome Johnny - (1951) - shortstory by Katherine MacLean
• Made to Measure - (1951) - novelette by William Campbell Gault
• Not Around the Corner - essay by H. L. Gold
• Ask Me Anything - (1951) - novelette by Damon Knight
• If You Was a Moklin - (1951) - novelette by Murray Leinster
• Man of Destiny - (1951) - shortstory by John Christopher
• Susceptibility - (1951) - shortstory by John D. MacDonald
• The End of History and Beyond - essay by H. L. Gold
• The Waker Dreams - (1950) - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• Common Denominator - (1951) - shortstory by John D. MacDonald
• Second Childhood - (1951) - shortstory by Clifford D. Simak
• About Time - essay by H. L. Gold
• Don't Live in the Past - (1951) - novelette by Damon Knight
• The Biography Project - (1951) - shortstory by H. L. Gold
• Dark Interlude - (1951) - shortstory by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds
• The Other Now - (1951) - shortstory by Murray Leinster

Table of Contents:

• A Saucer of Loneliness - (1953) - shortstory by Theodore Sturgeon
• University - (1953) - novelette by Peter Phillips
• Unready to Wear - (1953) - shortstory by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Junkyard - (1953) - novelette by Clifford D. Simak
• Specialist - (1953) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Not Fit for Children - (1953) - shortstory by Evelyn E. Smith
• Warm - (1953) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Caretaker - (1953) - shortstory by James H. Schmitz
• A Bad Day for Sales - (1953) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Minimum Sentence - (1953) - shortstory by Theodore R. Cogswell
• Problem on Balak - (1953) - shortstory by Roger Dee
• Four in One - (1953) - novelette by Damon Knight
• Teething Ring - (1953) - shortstory by James Causey
• Self Portrait - (1951) - novelette by Bernard Wolfe
• Tiger by the Tail - (1951) - shortstory by Alan E. Nourse
• Pillar to Post - (1951) - novelette by John Wyndham
• A Pail of Air - (1951) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• The Year of the Jackpot - (1952) - novelette by Robert A. Heinlein
• Star, Bright - (1952) - novelette by Mark Clifton
• Surface Tension - [Pantropy] - (1952) - novelette by James Blish
• The Snowball Effect - (1952) - shortstory by Katherine MacLean
• Tea Tray in the Sky - (1952) - shortstory by Evelyn E. Smith
• Game for Blondes - (1952) - shortstory by John D. MacDonald
• The Misogynist - (1952) - shortstory by James E. Gunn
• Lost Memory - (1952) - shortstory by Peter Phillips
• The C-Chute - (1951) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• Lover, When You're Near Me - (1952) - novelette by Richard Matheson
• Student Body - (1953) - novelette by F. L. Wallace
• Hallucination Orbit - (1952) - novelette by J. T. McIntosh
• A Gleeb for Earth - (1953) - shortstory by Charles Schafhauser
• To the Hills! - [Editor's Page] - (1953) - essay by H. L. Gold
• Command Performance - (1952) - novelette by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Table of Contents:

• Program Notes - (1958) - essay by H. L. Gold
• Limiting Factor - (1954) - shortstory by Theodore R. Cogswell
• Protection - (1956) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• The Vilbar Party - (1955) - shortstory by Evelyn E. Smith
• End as a World - (1955) - shortstory by F. L. Wallace
• Time in the Round - (1957) - novelette by Fritz Leiber
• Help! I Am Dr. Morris Goldpepper - (1957) - novelette by Avram Davidson
• A Wind Is Rising - (1957) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Ideas Die Hard - (1957) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• Dead Ringer - (1956) - shortstory by Lester del Rey
• The Haunted Corpse - (1957) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• The Model of a Judge - (1953) - shortstory by William Morrison
• Man in the Jar - (1957) - shortstory by Damon Knight
• Volpla - (1956) - novelette by Wyman Guin
• Honorable Opponent - (1956) - shortstory by Clifford D. Simak
• The Game of Rat and Dragon - (1955) - shortstory by Cordwainer Smith

Table of Contents:

• In This Corner - (1959) - essay by H. L. Gold
• I Am a Nucleus - (1957) - novelette by Stephen Barr
• Name Your Symptom - (1956) - shortstory by Jim Harmon
• Horrer Howce - (1956) - shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
• Man of Distinction - (1956) - shortstory by Michael Shaara
• The Bomb in the Bathtub - (1957) - shortstory by Thomas N. Scortia
• You Were Right, Joe - (1957) - shortstory by J. T. McIntosh
• What's He Doing in There? - (1957) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• The Gentlest Unpeople - (1958) - novelette by Frederik Pohl
• The Hated - (1958) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• Kill Me with Kindness - (1958) - shortstory by Richard Wilson
• Or All the Seas with Oysters - (1958) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• The Gun Without a Bang - (1958) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Man in a Quandary - (1958) - shortstory by Joseph Wesley
• Blank Form - (1958) - shortstory by Arthur Sellings
• The Minimum Man - (1958) - novelette by Robert Sheckley

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1961) - essay by H. L. Gold
• Inside John Barth - (1960) - novelette by William W. Stuart
• The Last Letter - (1958) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• Perfect Answer - (1958) - shortstory by Joseph Wesley
• Double Dare - (1956) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• Pastoral Affair - (1959) - shortstory by Charles A. Stearns
• Black Charlie - (1954) - shortstory by Gordon R. Dickson
• $1,000 a Plate - (1954) - shortstory by Jack McKenty
• Take Wooden Indians - (1959) - novelette by Avram Davidson
• The Bitterest Pill - (1959) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• This Side Up - (1954) - shortstory by Raymond E. Banks
• The Eel - (1958) - shortstory by Miriam Allen deFord
• A Feast of Demons - (1958) - novelette by William Morrison
• Nightmare with Zeppelins - (1958) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
• We Never Mention Aunt Nora - (1958) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• When the People Fell - (1959) - shortstory by Cordwainer Smith

Horace Gold, Galaxy's 1st editor, had worked at Standard Magazines in the early '40s as assistant editor, reading for Standard's 3 sf pulps: Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder & Captain Future. With war's advent he joined the army, but in '49 was approached by Vera Cerutti, who had once worked for him. Cerutti was now working for an Italian publisher, Edizione Mondiale, who had opened a NY office as World Editions. World Editions had made a heavy loss on Fascination, an attempt to launch a magazine in the US, & they were looking for new title recommendations. Gold knew about The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, a digest launched in the fall of '49 & thought there was a market for another serious sf magazine. He also proposed paying 3 cents a word, a high rate, given that most others only paid 1 cent. World Editions agreed, made Gold editor & the 1st issue appeared in 10/50.

For the 1st issue, Gold obtained several stories by known authors, including Isaac Asimov, Fritz Leiber, Theodore Sturgeon & part 1 of Time Quarry by Clifford D. Simak. Along with an essay by Gold, the premiere introduced a book review column by anthologist Groff Conklin (running til '55) & a Willy Ley science column.

In the summer of '51, disagreements within World Editions led to distribution disruptions. The operations head found out & agreed to sell Galaxy to the printer, Rbt M. Guinn. Guinn's new company, named Galaxy Publ. Corp, took over with the 10/51 issue. Gold remained editor, but lost the assistance of World Editions staff, relying instead on Jerome Bixby, Algis Budrys, Theodore Sturgeon & Sturgeon's wife Evelyn Paige. Frederik Pohl, working as a literary agent, was also helpful in obtaining writers.

The sf magazine boom was over by the late '50s. Their low circulation didn't endear them to distributors, middlemen who transported magazines from publishers to news-stands & other outlets. Gold changed Galaxy Science Fiction to Galaxy Magazine with the 9/58 issue, commenting that science fiction "scares many people away from buying". Galaxy's circulation, at about 90,000, was the highest of the sf magazines, but Guinn decided to cost cut, & in 1959 raised the price, changed it to a bimonthly, & increased the page count. Guinn also cut the rates paid to authors from 3-4 to 1.5 cents a word. These changes saved over $12,000 yearly. The result was a circulation fall to about 80,000 within 2 years. This was sustainable because of fiction budget savings.

Guinn acquired If, another sf magazine, in '59, gaving it to Gold to edit as well. The 1st issue of If under Gold was 7/59. Galaxy's shift to a bimonthly schedule had been to reduce Gold's workload as he was in poor health. He was able to take on If because the magazines alternated publication months. The next year he had a car accident & proved unable to continue. Frederik Pohl took over at some point in early '61, tho not listed on the masthead as editor until 10/61.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: How to Write Science Fiction - (1962) - essay by H. L. Gold
• The Nuse Man - (1960) - shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
• Success Story - (1960) - novelette by Earl Goodale
• A Husband for My Wife - (1960) - shortstory by William W. Stuart
• Insidekick - (1959) - novelette by J. F. Bone
• Love Called This Thing - (1959) - shortstory by Avram Davidson and Laura Goforth
• Lex - (1959) - shortstory by W. T. Haggert
• License to Steal - (1959) - shortstory by Louis Newman
• True Self - (1959) - shortstory by Elizabeth Mann Borgese
• Flower Arrangement - (1959) - shortstory by Rosel George Brown
• Thing of Beauty - (1958) - novelette by Damon Knight
• Personnel Problem - (1958) - shortstory by H. L. Gold
• The Number of the Beast - (1958) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• The IFTH of OOFTH - (1957) - shortstory by Walter Tevis
• The Genius Heap - (1956) - shortstory by James Blish