A jilted man plans murderous revenge while trying to avoid any behavior that would reveal his plans to the government’s all-seeing technology that can reconstruct the past from electromagnetic and sound waves.
—Michael Main
It was sensitive enough to pick up the “fingerprints” of light and sound waves imprinted on matter, descramble and screen them, and reproduce the image of what had happened.

Tags

(5)

Variants

(3)
  1. originally published byline.
    “Private Eye,” as by as Lewis Padgett, Astounding Science Fiction, January 1949.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Henry Kuttner as by Lewis Padgett
    C. L. Moore as by Lewis Padgett
  2. alternative byline.
    “Private Eye,” as by Henry Kuttnert, in The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1950, edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty (Frederick Fell, September 1950).
    3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Henry Kuttner
    C. L. Moore [uncredited]
  3. real byline.
    “Private Eye” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, in Science Fiction Inventions, edited by Damon Knight (Lancer Books, 1967).
    4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Henry Kuttner
    C. L. Moore

Translations

(2)
  1. French.
    “L'œil était dans” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, in Déjà demain (Gallimard, October 1961).
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Henry Kuttner
    C. L. Moore
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by P. J. Izabelle
  2. German.
    “Spürauge” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, in 10 Science Fiction Kriminal-Stories, edited by Arnulf D. Kraus and Helmuth W. Mommers (Heyne, 1965).
    3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Henry Kuttner
    C. L. Moore
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Helmuth W. Mommers

Indexer Notes

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  1. Credits—We are uncertain whether C. L. Moore contributed to this story. She was credited in Science Fiction Inventions, edited by Damon Knight (Lancer Books, 1967), but not in later anthology reprints.