The Risk Profession

WAS DONALD E. WESTLAKE A SCIENCE FICTION WRITER? Everyone knows him as the mystery writer who published books like "The Hook" (2000), "Bad News" 2001, and "Put a Lid on It" (2002) under his own name, Donald E. Westlake, and of course that he was also Richard Stark and a number of other favorite authors. But a science fiction writer? -- Really? -- You bet he was, early on in his career. (He even wrote one SF novel -- "Anarchaos," in 1966, as "Curt Clark.") He also wrote quite a bit of short SF, like this weird little SF mystery that first graced the pages of "Amazing" in 1963. It's an engaging little tale, set in a asteroid-belt colony: our hero is an investigator for an interplanetary insurance company, ferreting out the truth behind suspicious (and sometimes, uhm, otherworldly) claims insurance claims. . . .