Review: “The Ambulance Made Two Trips” by Murray Leinster (1960)

Posted on January 17th, 2008

Short story about a police officer trying to nab the town racketeer, but has trouble finding support. Other cops look the other way because nice gifts show up on their doorstep for their wives, and victims are too scared to swear out a complaint lest an accident befall them.

Enter a laundryman with a special box who is running the laundry for a brother-in-law who recently suffered an “accident.” The box is a psionic unit that protects the holder of a related psionic charm from harm. With the help of laundryman Brink, Detective Sergeant Fitzgerald eventually brings in head bad guy Big Jake after numerous thwarted attempts at foul play.

This short story began well, opening with Fitzgerald finding yet another attempted bribe on his doorstep which, like the rest, he hands over to the local orphanage. What they will do with a Meerschaum pipe is their problem. It begins as a slightly humorous police procedural with Fitzgerald chasing down leads in an attempt to finally pin something on Big Jake. The humor broadens and becomes farcical with pratfalls galore, an unwelcome direction that quickly drained the humor from the story.

Fair. If you’re not careful, you’ll trip over it at Project Gutenberg in a couple formats or at Manybooks.net in more.

Tags: free science fiction, public domain science fiction, Review, speculative fiction
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