The Dictator

by Stephen Marlowe

Stephen Marlowe (born Milton Lesser) was an American author of science fiction, mystery novels, and fictional autobiographies of Christopher Columbus, Miguel de Cervantes, and Edgar Allan Poe. This is one of those stories.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction

15 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 30, 2011

About the author

Aka Milton S. Lesser, Adam Chase, Andrew Frazer, Jason Ridgway, C.H. Thames.

Stephen Marlowe (1928–2008) was the author of more than fifty novels, including nearly two dozen featuring globe-trotting private eye Chester Drum. Born Milton Lesser, Marlowe was raised in Brooklyn and attended the College of William and Mary. After several years writing science fiction under his given name, he legally adopted his pen name, and began focusing on Chester Drum, the Washington-based detective who first appeared in The Second Longest Night (1955).

Although a private detective akin to Raymond Chandler’s characters, Drum was distinguished by his jet-setting lifestyle, which carried him to various exotic locales from Mecca to South America. These espionage-tinged stories won Marlowe acclaim, and he produced more than one a year before ending the series in 1968. After spending the 1970s writing suspense novels like The Summit (1970) and The Cawthorn Journals (1975), Marlowe turned to scholarly historical fiction. He lived much of his life abroad, in Switzerland, Spain, and France, and died in Virginia in 2008.

Marlowe received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1997.

Reviews

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short story, although I guessed the ending early on. Yet, it still surprised me in another way: The why’s of it all.
📚📌 Discovered this on Amazon Kindle.

[Sara]

The dictator escape to his cold death
more Q travel at our mind
but fly coz we want it
snow nervs must we have to complit the mesion
dictator sleap at his tomp early
a words fast swim at last
freedom freedom freedom
more test and more again
the same as ever
dictator no for ever
another red page and we come clean
just us under the sun refrish our breath
where no must be dictator again
coz the river went right
at heaven sight
the dictator fight
and we win another his death

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute fantasy listening 🔰😀

Another will written fantasy thriller adventure novella by Stephen Marlowe about the assassination of the current dictator and the unexpected conclusion when the mission is accomplished. I would recommend this short story to anyone looking for a quick read with a different ending. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 to novels 🔰😀 2022😮

[Beatrice Drury · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modal society where everyone aspires (?) To be perfectly average, a man is trained to kill the dictator.

[Chris Sellers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short story that reads like a lesser Twilight Zone episode. The prose doesn't elevate it above its unfleshed out idea.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 4 out of 5]

short story that you could see comming

[Zen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine, just-passing-the-time kind of story.

We are the government we elect. You can't complain about that.

Reminds me how after all great reformers, once they become elected officials, or after they overthrow the current rulers who are repressing them, eventually become "The Government".

I did find the everyone is an "average" society a bit creepy I will admit.

And I did like the headphones with the delayed voice playback kind of cool. Interesting form of torture.

A somewhat bland story with uninspired writing, which typical for a Stephen Marlowe story.