Nabbing a Thief in Lloyd F. Loux’s ‘A Clever Catch’

A detective must catch a thief but, instead, finds something more precious.

“Cupid the Honey Thief,” 1514, by Albrecht Durer. Taking what you want is sometimes chaotic and painful. Public Domain

It’s amazing how love can throw a simple, ordered life into complete chaos. Often when one doesn’t expect it, love arrives, throwing the pattern, peace, surety of everyday life into turmoil. Such is the nature of love.

In his short story “A Clever Catch,” Lloyd F. Loux uses witty word play and allegory to show that the very quality of love which disrupts life’s order makes it all the more wonderful. Love introduces adventure and beauty to an ordered, ordinary life, and throws it into the wonderful unknown.

The protagonist is the best detective in the force, and he has a thief to catch. He knows that she is a thief, though she may pose as an innocent saleswoman.