Review: Ghost Story "The Music from Infinity" by Thorp McClusky"

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It’s twenty-five past eleven. John Chambers has invited his friend Jerry over for drinks and to tell him a story about the man whose execution they’re awaiting. Harry Pierce moved into the same boarding house as Chambers the year before. He seemed a decent sort. The landlady took an instant dislike to him, but he and Chambers began a friendship. Pierce just couldn’t stand to be around pianos. He had a nervous, distracted air about him, as if something else always had his attention. After they’d been friends for some weeks, and they spent an evening drinking. Chambers asked him why he was so touchy around pianos. Pierce said nothing for long time, then mentioned he was the Harry Pierce who was married to Alicia Castle, the pianist. Pierce’s name hadn’t clicked, but Alicia Castle’s did now. Everyone knew Alicia Castle. Chambers knew her as a pianist from the radio who had died after a lingering illness. How sad Pierce must be to lose a wife like that. Now it made sense that he odd behavior made sense, Chambers reasons. He missed his wife. Or so Chamber is content to think until Pierce blurts out: “Hell, Chambers! Ghosts don’t exist! They just don’t exist, and that’s all there is to it. Especially ghosts that don’t do anything but just play piano!” Chambers’s story is creepy and sad. Everybody doubts the sanity of everyone else. He and Jerry continue to drink and await news of Pierce’s execution. And then, things get weird. I could find little bio info on author Thorp McClusky, other than he (or she?) seems to have been active between 1936 and 1952, publishing solely in Weird Tales. This story is available at Wikisource: _____ Title: “The Music from Infinity” Author: Thorp McClusky (1906-1975) First published: Weird Tales September 1941 Source: ISFDB