Twelve Times Zero

by Howard Browne

Twelve Times Zero appeared in the March 1952 issue of If Worlds of Science Fiction.

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Police grilled him mercilessly, while eyes from a hundred worlds looked on.

It was a love-triangle murder that made today's headlines but the answer lay hundreds of thousands of light years away!

Genres: Science Fiction

70 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2010

About the author

Howard Browne (April 15, 1908–October 28, 1999) was a science fiction editor and mystery writer. He also wrote for several television series and films. Some of his work appeared over the pseudonyms John Evans, Alexander Blade, Lawrence Chandler, Ivar Jorgensen, and Lee Francis.

Beginning in 1942, Browne worked as managing editor for Ziff-Davis publications on Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures, both under Raymond A. Palmer's editorship. When Palmer left the magazines in 1949, Browne took over in January 1950. Browne ended the publication of Richard Shaver's Shaver Mystery and oversaw the change in Amazing from a pulp magazine to a digest. He left the magazines in 1956 to move to Hollywood.

In Hollywood, Browne wrote for television shows including Maverick, Ben Casey, and The Virginian. His last credit was for the film Capone (1975), starring Ben Gazzara.

Reviews

[Ace McGee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extended short story. Nice blend of honest, hard working, cigar smoking, 100% 1940 era cop, (who seems to have that unexplained magnetism for the "good girls "), and alien intrusion science fiction. Cop figures it all out, eventually gets a ride in a space ship, and all players stay true to there characters till the end.

Note: was looking for other Browne novels and found this one free on kindle.

This is a generous four stars.

[Karim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kirk is an apt name for the character given how reminiscent of Star Trek this whole thing was. Another naïve interpretation of a utopia that has pretty much all the flaws of our society, only dressed nicer. I don't know how Browne managed to do it, but he somehow managed to transform campy 50's sci-fi special effects into text form in his exposition.

[Rod Little · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit dated, but the real problem is the ending that fizzles to nowhere. It's pulp fiction, so you shouldn't expect a lot, but most pulp is at least fun to read. This one had a good opening hook, but then faded. A better ending would have saved it.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending caught me by surprise!