With Thimbles, With Forks, and Hope

Constance and Charlie #0.5

by Kate Wilhelm

This novella spawned a whole series of popular science fiction/mystery stories featuring the husband and wife detective team, Constance and Charlie. In this gripping story, the duo begins investigating what appears to be a simple insurance scam, but quickly find themselves caught up in a desperate match of wits against a strange woman who seems to have deadly powers. Hugo Award Nominee

52 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 25, 2003

About the author

Kate Wilhelm’s first short story, “The Pint-Sized Genie” was published in Fantastic Stories in 1956. Her first novel, MORE BITTER THAN DEATH, a mystery, was published in 1963. Over the span of her career, her writing has crossed over the genres of science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and magical realism, psychological suspense, mimetic, comic, and family sagas, a multimedia stage production, and radio plays. She returned to writing mysteries in 1990 with the acclaimed Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl Mysteries and the Barbara Holloway series of legal thrillers.

Wilhelm’s works have been adapted for television and movies in numerous countries; her novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to Quark, Orbit,  Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine,  Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan.

Kate Wilhelm is the widow of acclaimed science fiction author and editor, Damon Knight (1922-2002), with whom she founded the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Milford Writers’ Conference, described in her 2005 non-fiction work, STORYTELLER. They lectured together at universities across three continents; Kate has continued to offer interviews, talks, and monthly workshops.

Kate Wilhelm has received two Hugo awards, three Nebulas, as well as Jupiter, Locus, Spotted Owl, Prix Apollo, Kristen Lohman awards, among others. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of one of the first Solstice Awards presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in recognition of her contributions to the field of science fiction. 

Kate’s highly popular Barbara Holloway mysteries, set in Eugene, Oregon, opened with Death Qualified in 1990. Mirror, Mirror, released in 2017, is the series’ 14th novel.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this story from an old Asimov magazine. November 23, 1981. From the mystery series of Charlie and Constance. Kate always tells a good story.

[Esteé Hallatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It starts as one thing, but ends as another. Really enjoyed this one.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science fiction AND mystery...someone dies and someone lives. Fascinating.