Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 43, No. 4. Whole No. 245, April 1964

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One of Hugh Pentecost’s most interesting and unusual stories... Instead of telling you anything about the plot (even a “teaser”) suppose we list some of the titles considered by both the author and the editors (in effect, a group of “teasers”). The first title, suggested by the author, was “Poor Dear Consuela”; then, in more or less chronological order: “You Don’t Know George”; “Only the Good”; “We All Have To Learn”; “The Needle Man.” But finally your Editors decided on: “The Needle Sharp As Ever.”

It had been said of Sebastian Salazar, known as Sibby to his intimates, that he lived by the needle. The word needle, in this instance, had the verb-meaning — “to needle.” Sibby Salazar’s needle was, in fact, a venom-dipped tongue, used to inflame hidden wounds, to reveal dangerous secrets, to publicize private weaknesses, to inflate small disagreements into climax quarrels. The chief miracle of Sibby Salazar’s life, someone once remarked, was that he had managed to live to the age of 55 without being clobbered, or even murdered, by someone whose life he’d destroyed just “for fun.”

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