Stories I’m Reading: DICK STODGHILL “Deadtown.”

DICK STODGHILL “Deadtown.” Appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, November 2009. Never reprinted or collected, as far as I’ve discovered so far. The year Is 1940, and a man drives into the gritty out-of-the-way town named Dealtown with an empty tank and forty-seven cents in his pocket, and as chance would have it, he decides to stay for a while. He’s the kind of guy who’s offered a job as soon as the man who owns the roadhouse just outside of town sees him. (He takes it.) He also meets the girl who works behind the registration counter at the local hotel where he’s advised to spend the night. Both of these two people come with stories this story is about, and thereby hangs the tale. It’s a story that might have appeared in a detective pulp magazine of the same vintage, and it’s one I can recommend on that basis only … but with a caveat, It’s not as easy to explain as I thought it was going to be when I started writing this review, but I’ll give it a try anyway. Dick Stodghill,…