The Middle Of The Week After Next by Murray Leinster Episode #560
Murray Leinster | May 25, 2026-
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The Middle Of The Week After Next by Murray Leinster Episode #560
Murray Leinster
THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK AFTER NEXT
Episode #560 · Written by Murray Leinster · Narrated by Scott Miller
A city suddenly finds itself drowning in missing-person reports. One after another, ordinary citizens vanish after stepping into the same battered taxicab, leaving behind watches, coins, belt buckles, shoes, and every other piece of metal they carried. Before long, newspapers are screaming about a mass murderer known as the Taxi Monster.
The problem is that cabdriver Mr. Steems has absolutely no idea what is happening. He only knows that passengers keep disappearing from the back seat while his tiny apartment fills with luggage, groceries, flowers, jewelry, and enough strange leftovers to make him look catastrophically guilty. The more frightened the city becomes, the more trapped he feels.
The Middle Of The Week After Next is Murray Leinster at his best: fast, funny, inventive, and wildly imaginative. What begins as an absurd mystery slowly transforms into a clever scientific puzzle involving philosophy, atomic theory, and accidental time travel. Leinster balances comedy and tension beautifully, letting panic spread through the city while one absent-minded inventor quietly realizes he may have caused the entire disaster.
Unlike many speculative stories that focus on heroic scientists or cosmic adventure, this one thrives on ordinary personalities colliding with impossible events. A grumpy cabdriver, an ambitious patrolman, suspicious reporters, and a cheerful retiree become tangled in a scientific accident nobody fully understands. The result is one of the most entertaining and unusual time stories of the classic magazine era.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Murray Leinster was the pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, whose fiction appeared in nearly every major science fiction magazine of the twentieth century. His stories were published in Astounding Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and dozens of other magazines across a career that lasted more than fifty years.
Leinster wrote several landmark works of speculative fiction, including First Contact, Sidewise in Time, A Logic Named Joe, and the Med Ship stories. Many ideas now common in science fiction appeared in his work decades earlier, including alternate timelines, universal translators, and networked information systems resembling the modern internet.
The Middle Of The Week After Next highlights Leinster’s talent for blending complicated scientific ideas with humor and everyday characters. Instead of distant heroes or giant galactic wars, he builds chaos from a taxicab, a stubborn driver, and a retired handyman experimenting with impossible theories in his workshop.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to The World In The Balance by J. P. Marshall — a vintage science fiction tale of of alien invasion, terrifying weapons, and humanity’s last defense.
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MURRAY LEINSTER SHORT STORIES
Murray Leinster, the pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, was one of the most influential figures in early and mid-century science fiction. Writing across multiple decades, he helped define the structure and pace of modern science fiction storytelling, producing a vast body of work that appeared in the leading pulp magazines of the era.
His stories are driven by clear problems that demand immediate attention. A strange phenomenon appears without warning. A system fails in a way no one expected. A routine mission turns unstable with no obvious solution. Leinster builds tension by forcing his characters to respond in real time, often with limited information and no margin for error.
He had a gift for taking a single idea and pushing it as far as it could go. Rather than slowing the story with explanation, he lets events unfold step by step, each development tightening the situation. His work helped establish the fast-moving, problem-solving style that became a foundation of classic science fiction.
The stories below showcase Murray Leinster’s range—from interconnected Bud Gregory adventures to standalone tales that capture the urgency and imagination of vintage science fiction.
- The Middle Of The Week After Next by Murray Leinster
- The Gregory Circle by Murray Leinster
- The Nameless Something by Murray Leinster
- The Deadly Dust by Murray Leinster
- The Seven Temporary Moons by Murray Leinster
- Tanks by Murray Leinster
- The Other Now by Murray Leinster
- Invasion by Murray Leinster
- Nobody Saw the Ship by Murray Leinster
- The Life–Work of Professor Muntz by Murray Leinster
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Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.
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