Golden Visions, October 2009

"Shadows of Revolution"

Pages 41-48

Avery Granitski, aparatchik in the Martian Bureau of Social Responsibility, finds himself hampered in a murder investigation when he is saddled with a beautiful female alien who wants to see how the "uncivilized Hu-Mon" authorities solve crimes.

The second short story spun-off from my unpublished novel "Alien Impact", this one is set a year and a half after the tale told in the novel. The alien Keleyat, who have sent a band of delegates to Mars to deal with Humanity, have heard of Avery's prowess as a detective, and assign one of their own to follow him around and see how he solves crimes.

The story was written as a follow-on to my previous story, "An Arbitrary Deprivation of Life". The editor was so taken with the story that she asked if there were any others, and so requested to see (and subsequently purchased the reprint rights to) "An Arbitrary Deprivation of Life" for their next issue.

There is a cookie in this story, which no one seems to have found yet. It'll be interesting seeing if anyone ever notices it.

The story is in Issue #8, available at Golden Visions Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy.