A hired killer is sent to Vienna just before Christmas. The job is simple, to kill a man and get out of town immediately. Why would he stay? He hates Christmas, and hanging around after the crime could be dangerous, but a stranger's compassion forces him to question everything he's always believed, tempting him to stay just another day longer... First published in the Christmas edition of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine , this story was subsequently reviewed in Mystery Scene, which described it as "bordering on the magnificent".
A hired killer is sent to Vienna just before Christmas. The job is simple, to kill a man and get out of town immediately. Why would he stay? He hates Christmas, and hanging around after the crime could be dangerous, but a stranger's compassion forces him to question everything he's always believed, tempting him to stay just another day longer... First published in the Christmas edition of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine , this story was subsequently reviewed in Mystery Scene, which described it as "bordering on the magnificent".