Legendary science fiction author Fowler Faulkes may be dead, but his creation, the iconic Dr. Derringer, lives on in popular culture. Or, at least, the character would live on if not for Faulkes's predatory and greedy heir Hilary, who, during his time as the inflexible guardian of the estate, has created countless enemies in the relatively small community of writers of the genre. So when he is stabbed nearly to death in a room with only one door, which nobody was seen entering or exiting, Foulkes suspects a writer. Fearing that the assailant will return, he asks for police protection, and when more potentially-fatal encounters follow, it becomes clear to Detective Terry Marshall and his assistant, the inquisitive nun, Sister Ursula, that death awaits Mr. Foulkes around every corner. Now, they'll have to work overtime to thwart the would-be murderer—a task that requires a deep dive into the strange, idiosyncratic world of science fiction in its early days. With characters based heavily on Anthony Boucher's friends at the Manana Literary Society, including Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and Jack Parsons, Rocket to the Morgue is both a classic locked room mystery and an enduring portrait of a real-life writing community. Reprinted for the first time in over thirty years, the book is a must-read for fans of mysteries and science fiction alike. "In his chosen field [Boucher] was a Renaissance man, a complete man—writer, critic and historian. He was conscientious and a fine craftsman." -- Ellery Queen "An intriguing look into the beginnings of science fiction as we know it today" -- The Heinlein Society Anthony Boucher (1911–1968) was an American author, editor, and critic, perhaps best known today as the namesake of the annual Bouchercon convention, an international meeting of mystery writers, fans, critics, and publishers. Born William Anthony Parker White, he wrote under various pseudonyms and published fiction in a number of genres outside of mystery, including fantasy and science fiction. F. Paul Wilson is an American author primarily working in the science fiction and horror genres. He has written twenty-three novels and numerous short stories in the Repairman Jack saga, his longest running series. He lives in New Jersey. Introduction by F. Paul Wilson For the longest time I thought it was “Boo-SHAY.” I’d seen the name “Anthony Boucher” a lot: On the masthead of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , for instance, and I’d read his Far and Away and The Compleat Werewolf collections of SF and fantasy fiction. I was studying French in school, so it seemed natural to use the French pronunciation. Only when I attended my first Bouchercon did I learn to pronounce it “BOW-chur.” Bouchercon is an annual gathering of mystery readers, writers, and collectors, and I was confused as to why they’d name it after a sci-fi guy. But to these folks, Anthony Boucher was a mystery guy―he not only wrote mysteries, he reviewed them for the San Francisco Chronicle , Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , and the New York Times . Oh, and he helped found the Mystery Writers of America. So, yeah, he was a mystery guy too. Rocket to the Morgue combines both these passions. When Otto Penzler, the esteemed publisher of this line of classic mystery novels, emailed me saying he thought I’d be “a great choice” to write an introduction to Rocket to the Morgue , I wondered why. I’d never heard of the novel and I’m not known as a mystery writer. I started in science fiction, moved into horror fiction, and for the last quarter century or so I’ve busied myself with weird thrillers. But it was Otto, and it was Boucher, and the novel had “rocket” and “morgue” in the title, so I said I’d give it a read. Am I ever glad I did. A little background: the man born William Anthony Parker White did most of his writing under the name Anthony Boucher; in the early 1940s his Boucher pen name adopted the pseudonym “H. H. Holmes” (which is, in turn, the pseudonym of a late 19th century serial killer) to write mysteries, including Rocket to the Morgue . (Confused? Wait . . .) Rocket is set in 1941 Los Angeles, less than a year before the USA entered World War Two. It can be categorized as a locked-room mystery, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a firsthand peek into the innards of what came to be known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction, written by a man who hung out with the writers who forged that age and became household names within the genre. Not only did he know those writers, he peopled the novel with thinly disguised versions of them. But I knew none of this when I opened the copy Otto sent me. Chapter one is a commonplace domestic scene that introduces the detective protagonist, Lt. Terence Marshall. He’s soon faced with a locked-room stabbing that defies explanation. He turns to an unorthodox consultant. But chapter two drops us, in medias res, into a clichéd space opera starring Captain Comet and his robot companion Ad