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Blue Murder

Wilbur Daniel Steele

First published 1927
Type Short Fiction
Length Novelette

Three brothers, a tangle of jealousies, and a horse one of them buys, named Blue Murder. Soon one brother is found with his head smashed in and the mark of horseshoes on him.

  • A non-speculative mystery/suspense story. The horse who is suspected of having viciously murdered a human is actually just an ordinary horse.
  • first appearance in Harper's Magazine, Volume CLI (Volume 151)October 1925, pages 559-570. The story is available on-line to Harper's Magazine subscribers at www.harpers.org/archive/1925/10/page/0049.
  • Appeared in The Golden Book Magazine, 1930. 9 pages.

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
1927 Cover The Man Who Saw Through Heaven and Other Stories Harper & Brothers Collection 159
1946 The Best Stories of Wilbur Daniel Steele Doubleday Collection 229
1946 Cover The Best Stories of Wilbur Daniel Steele (abridged) Editions for the Armed Services Collection
February 1961 Cover In the Dead of Night Anthony Gibbs & Phillips Anthology 89
August 1961 Cover In the Dead of Night The Canterbury Press Anthology 89
April 1962 Cover In the Dead of Night Panther Anthology 72
June 1963 Cover In the Dead of Night Panther Anthology 72
1968 Cover In the Dead of Night Panther Anthology
August 1976 The Best Stories of Wilbur Daniel Steele Greenwood Press Collection