In this issue, Allan Chen returns to the pages of Aurealis with the taut 'A Cold Heart' which depicts a brutal order of monster killers who are more hired assassins than mythic heroes, and whose tragic and flawed natures lead to inevitable violent ends. Adam J Limbert's unsettling 'Carbon Copy' taps into classic science fiction and horror themes of doppelgӓngers and manufactured memories, taking the modern-day idea of identity theft and pushing it to its logical end. And in the intriguing 'Perfect Assassin', Raluca Balasa puts a literal spin on the idea of love being dangerous, to the point of having the power to kill.

Lucy Sussex's 'The Other Genres of Fergus Hume' looks at the fantastical novels of the author of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, set in Marvellous Melbourne, which became the best-selling crime novel of the 1800s. In 'Dissecting SF: Too Much Gun', Lachlan Walter examines the role of guns in science fiction. And as usual we feature book reviews of latest releases and the quirky, hard to categorise 'Secret History of Australia'.