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 THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY 

A SHORT STORY from no.435, Sept 1959

THE PENNY MURDER

In this short story, JTS takes us back to  Saint Harping, where he had set two of his Blake novellas, The Blonde and the Boodle and Collapse of Stout Party. St Harping is Story's definitive English small town; a model of rectitude and prosperity on the surface, but riddled with hypocrisy and greed. In Collapse of Stout Party one resident says to Blake: "You know the St Harping town motto? It's written in Latin on the Town Hall, but freely translated it means 'Under every stone there's a creepy crawly.' Honest!"

I wonder if The Penny Murder was a re-write of a short previously published elsewhere? (If anyone knows for certain do e-mail and tell me at Guy.Lawley@dsl.pipex.com .)

The cocktail party anecdote short story, of which this was clearly intended to be the first in a series, was continued in no.461 with a very short short credited to Splash Kirby. After that...??  (Ditto.)

— GL, Sept 2005

After that , I have now discovered (Feb 2006) there was one more in the series, again by JTS. 

You can read it here: >>> 

The cover to SBL 435 illustrates the main story, not JTS's short

The scans have been deliberately left as close as possible to the source pages' appearance, including stains from the SBL's famous rusty staples, and the occasional rogue chip of wood-pulp.

 

Next: SBL Short story 2  >>>      

Jack Trevor Story's texts copyright ©  the estate of Jack Trevor Story 2005. Not for reproduction. Copyright in all work by Jack Trevor Story is the property of the author's heirs. Permission for use of this material can be obtained through Jackie Edwards (Story), Peter Story, Lee Story or Michael Moorcock. Reproduction of copyright material whether in text, visual or audio form by unauthorised sources strictly forbidden.

If you have any details about Story's time on the SBL,  please let me know at Guy.Lawley@dsl.pipex.com  Thanks!

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