
In a bleak, rain‑slick city where the only crime left is a whisper, Keller is a private investigator with the rare ability to read minds. His latest client, a nervous salesman named Harold Radcliffe, bursts into the office demanding help with a murder that should be impossible—his wife was found dead with a charred face, the crime scene locked from the inside. As Keller probes the tangled thoughts of a man desperate for answers, he confronts a society that has engineered away violence, making every hint of homicide a shocking anomaly.
The story unfolds as Keller balances his own dwindling finances with the pressure of a case that could shatter the nation’s hard‑won peace. With telepathic insight as his only weapon, he must untangle fragmented memories, hidden motives, and the unsettling possibility that someone—or something—has learned to break the unbreakable rule against killing. The mystery deepens, pulling listeners into a tense, futuristic thriller where the line between mind and murder blurs.
Language
en
Duration
~18 minutes (17K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2020-01-30
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Best known for a compact, clever science-fiction tale from the early 1960s, this writer worked in the classic magazine tradition of fast-moving ideas and sharp twists. His name is most closely tied to The Man Who Flew, a story that mixes telepathy, mystery, and a futuristic setting.
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