Suicide Mission

The heat of the early afternoon sun lay like a hot compress on the back of Maldon's neck, and he felt as though his hair was burning.
"This story will undoubtedly revive the old controversies about a man going into his past and killing his grandfather -- in this case the murderer doesn't know his victim at all not just why he is going to kill him.  "Only that he must -- if he can." (Blurb of the Year, 1954).  Maldon time-jumps twenty years into the past to murder his own grandfather, Henry Steenson, when he was a mere stripling.  As for the motive, I won't spoil White's cunningly overcomplicated plot if I tell you that the Clue is in the Title.

Synopsis by Graham Andrews

• NEW WORLDS No. 27, September 1954