"And Then There Were (N-One)" is a 2017 science fiction/murder mystery novella by Sarah Pinsker. It was first published in Uncanny Magazine.
When physicist Sarah Pinsker is murdered at SarahCon — an interdimensional convention where everyone is Sarah Pinsker from a different alternate timeline — only insurance investigator Sarah Pinsker can solve the case.
This is the story that made me fall in love with Sarah Pinsker's writing. In an alternate world full of Sarah Pinskers, we know who dunnit. The joy of this closed room murder mystery is getting to the which one? And why?
If I discovered a wormhole technology to parallel worlds, I hope that I would invite all of my other selves to come visit and see if we can identify all of the points of departure.
The scene at the hotel checkin where they are looking up everyone by name reminded me of many years ago I worked as an election judge in NYC for a precinct that consisted of a single apartment building. We had to ask people when they cam e to vote what their address was - they all started by saying the street number and name, but literally everyone in the book lived at that same address so it wasn't helpful for finding them.
The publisher has the full text online: www.uncannymagazine.com/article/and-then-there-were-n-one/
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/and-then-there-were-n-one/.https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/and-then-there-were-n-one/.