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Dead Man's Diary: Florida private investigator Mike Shayne's in New Orleans at the behest of a distraught wife whose war-hero husband, Jasper Groat, has gone missing—along with his diary, a harrowing soon-to-be-published daily account of being set adrift in a lifeboat with two shipmates. Rumor has it it's also an incriminating confessional. With two corpses—and counting—it looks to Shayne like someone would prefer if Jasper and his damning revelations had been buried at sea. A Taste for Cognac: One minute, PI Mike Shayne's having a quick afternoon cocktail in a Miami dive. The next, he's been solicited to investigate an intoxicating conspiracy involving the parole of an aging bootlegger, a secretive old sea captain tortured to death, a missing female reporter, and two dozen bottles of prewar cognac—vintage, valuable, and apparently worth killing for. If anybody can pop the cork on this case, it's Shayne. Brett Halliday's'fast‐paced world of violence, intrigues, complex twists and voluptuous women'inspired film, radio, and television adaptations, as well as the long-running Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine (The New York Times).

A desperate doctor hires Mike Shayne for a case that starts with blackmail and ends with murder. Back when Mike Shayne was living in New Orleans, his best friend, Tim Rourke, got shot on Miami Beach. Rourke, star reporter for the Miami News, was working on the story of his career when gunmen pumped him full of lead. It took quick work by the brilliant Dr. Ambrose to save him. So when the good doctor finds himself in mortal danger, Rourke repays the debt the only way he knows how: He calls Mike Shayne. Ambrose's trouble started at the gambling tables. Now, he's in the clutches of a blackmailer who intends to bleed $1,000 from him every month until the poor surgeon drops dead. At stake are Ambrose's practice, his marriage, and his life. In an act of desperation, he asks Shayne to help him make the blackmail payoff, which the detective outright refuses to do. But when the doctor's trouble turns into a murder case, Shayne will find himself unable to turn his back on the man who saved his friend's life. Pay-Off in Blood is the 42nd book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Mike Shayne has 24 hours to find out the truth and save a man from death row. Three years ago, Miami Chief of Detectives Peter Painter made the greatest arrest of his career – one that led to Sam Harris being put on death row for killing Rose Heminway's husband. So when Harris's wife discovers evidence that she believes could save her husband's life, Painter does what any corrupt cop would: He sits on the evidence, waiting for the electric chair to do its work. Finally, Mrs. Harris has no choice. She contacts Heminway, who was never fully convinced of Sam's guilt, though she testified against him, and they take the final course of action of desperate women across Miami: They hire Mike Shayne. The most daring detective in the United States, Shayne has just 24 hours to clear Harris's name, or an innocent man will fry. Saving Harris will mean the wrath of the entire Miami police department, but Shayne isn't worried. He's tougher than any electric chair. Murder in Haste is the 40th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Mike Shayne goes grave robbing in a pet cemetery to solve the case of a millionaire's murder. It's 11:00 am, and Mike Shayne has just poured himself a cognac, when Henrietta Rogell strolls into his office. Normally, Shayne would extend no special favors to a wealthy client, but his checking account is nearly empty, and he's willing to straighten his tie for the sake of a millionaire – especially when she's come about something as lucrative as murder. Miss Rogell's brother, John, died two days before. The coroner ruled it a heart attack, but Henrietta is convinced he was poisoned, and she will pay handsomely for Shayne to prove it. His first lead is a murdered dog. Daffy, the beloved Pekinese of John Rogell's young wife, Anita, dropped dead after eating a bowl of soup laced with strychnine. Every member of the family had a reason to want Rogell out of the picture. To find the killer, Shayne will have to disturb the departed – and dig up the canine victim. Die Like a Dog is the 35th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Mike Shayne tackles a smuggling ring while on a Caribbean vacation. A car speeds toward the embankment with one of the most ruthless heroin dealers in the country behind the wheel. Beside him is the legendary detective Mike Shayne, who will take control of the car or die trying. They fight – and the car goes sailing off the cliff. The drug pusher dies, but Shayne escapes, battered but unharmed. His doctor releases him from the hospital on condition that he take a vacation, and so Miami's toughest sleuth reluctantly books a three-week island getaway. But before the jet takes off, trouble finds him once again. A customs agent holds the plane to ask Shayne a favor. The island the detective is headed for is a notorious smuggler's haven, and there have been rumors that a big shipment is on its way. He should know better, but Shayne can't help but agree to smash the ring, even if it means coming home with more than a few broken ribs. Murder Takes No Holiday is the 36th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Mike Shayne takes a dip in the deadly Florida Keys for a dancer named Sloe Burn. He smells her perfume before he walks through the door. It's called Black Sin, and the woman wearing it certainly lives up to the name. Esther Piney, better known as Sloe Burn, is a hard-boiled stripper born and raised in the swamps of the Florida Keys. Where she's from, murder is currency, and bodies disappear never to be found. Her favorite client has vanished, taking a fat bankroll with him, and she knows the only way she'll get him back is to beg a favor from the legendary Mike Shayne. Unfortunately for Sloe Burn, Shayne doesn't make a habit of tracking down missing strip-club regulars. But when a woman comes asking him to find her husband – who just happens to fit the description of Sloe Burn's sugar daddy – Shayne decides it's time to go fishing in the darkest corner of the Keys. Killers from the Keys is the 39th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

In a lonely canyon high above El Paso, a ruthless millionaire and a hardline socialist live side by side. Raymond Dwight makes money mercilessly and Leslie Young hates the rich with a passion, but the men have coexisted peacefully – so far. But when Western novelist Asa Baker escapes to Young's cabin for a weekend of writing, he can sense tension in the air. His friend has always muttered about tossing a few bombs at Dwight's estate, but his jokes have stopped being funny. Baker has seen enough bloodshed to know that there is murder on the horizon. When he finds Young dead on the floor, a strange mark on his cheek, Baker calls the only man who can help: Jerry Burke, the toughest cop in El Paso. In the shadowy corners of this Texas canyon lie secrets that someone will kill to protect – and Burke is the only man daring enough to uncover the truth.

Charlie Dell isn't pleased when his wife, Irma, tells him that her sister is coming to live with them. But Irma is a stern woman who runs her husband's life with an iron fist – and what she says goes. At first, Dell is angry that she's forcing her seventeen-year-old sister on him, but his heart skips a beat the moment he sees Lois. She's a far cry from the buck-toothed kid Dell remembers, and no matter how hard he fights his feelings, he can't resist his desire. He would sell his soul to be alone with Lois – and he's about to get the chance. Insane with passion, Dell starts cutting corners at work in order to find time alone with the young girl. He knows this may end in tragedy, but his life can't get any worse. Ever since he laid eyes on Lois, Dell's been in hell.

Just 3 years ago, Ralph Larson and his wife were newlyweds, the happiest young couple in Miami. But since Larson went to work for Wesley Ames, his life has been hell. He's convinced his wife has fallen in love with his boss, and the jealousy is driving him mad. Hoping to avoid a murder, private detective Mike Shayne tells Larson's wife to knock off the flirting before her husband's envy leads to tragedy. But it's too late: Death is at the door. When Shayne learns that Larson is headed to Ames's apartment, pistol in hand, he races there hoping to prevent bloodshed. He finds Larson standing over his boss's corpse, ready to confess to murder. But there's more here than meets the eye – and more to this murder than a resentful husband holding a smoking gun.

It's 10:30 pm, and Mike Shayne is sipping cognac, ruminating on the perfection of Lucy Hamilton's fried chicken, when a shotgun fires upstairs. Following the acrid stench of gunpowder to a locked door halfway down the hall, Shayne has no choice but to batter it down, tumbling face first into the scene of a particularly ugly double suicide. The woman lies on the floor in the middle of the sitting room, her face twisted by the deadly kiss of cyanide. A few feet beyond her body is what remains of a man, his head obliterated by the shotgun's blast. The woman's father is one of Miami's power brokers, and he refuses to believe that his daughter would end her life over a silly affair. Isn't it possible, he asks, that she was murdered? Convinced or not, Shayne is the only man ruthless enough to find out.

When Linda Fitzgilpin is woken by the sound of the ringing telephone, she finds her husband is missing. For years now, Jerome has always slept in his bed across the room, but last night he didn't come home. When the phone rings, Linda knows why. A body matching his description has been found at the scene of an accident – Jerome is dead. Uncertain of what to do, Linda asks her downstairs neighbor Lucy Hamilton for help. And Lucy calls her boss, the toughest private detective in Miami: Mike Shayne. Responding quickly, Shayne takes the newly minted widow to identify the body, and is on hand when the routine procedure turns into an ordeal. Although Linda's husband's body was found dead beside a wrecked car, it wasn't the crash that killed him. It was poison – and Shayne has only thirty-six hours to find the killer before the trail turns as cold as the body on the slab.

It's the 4th and final day of the convention, and Marvin Blake is ready to go home. Dreading the evening's festivities, he checks out of his hotel early and heads back to Sunray Beach, longing to see his wife, Ellie, and daughter, Sissy. When he reaches home late that night, his bedroom light is on – and his best friend's car is parked in the driveway. His wife has been unfaithful, and Blake knows what he must do. He checks into a motel, pulls out the stationery, and prepares to take his life. The next morning, Ellie is found in her bedroom, stark naked and strangled to death. Miami reporter Tim Rourke picks up the story and brings in the only man who can untangle this web of lies: Mike Shayne. A seasoned professional, Shayne may think he's seen it all, but he'll soon find that, in suburbia, murder is never what it seems.

It's been years since Mike Shayne last subjected himself to a stakeout. Miami's most infamous private detective simply doesn't have time to waste sitting in a car, drinking cold coffee and waiting for excitement that will never come. But the Acme Bonding Company is one of his oldest clients, and when his stand-in falls through, he's obliged to keep watch himself. A string of warehouse robberies, timed to coincide with hurricanes, has put Miami's business community on the alert. So when a tropical storm closes in, Acme asks Shayne to keep a lookout for burglars. He waits with his pistol in hand. The burglars enter the warehouse quietly, like professionals, but Shayne still sees them coming – and his trigger finger is itchy. A shootout leaves one burglar dead and the others on the lam. But when he searches the city for the rest of the gang, Shayne finds that Miami is about to get hit by something far deadlier than a tropical storm.

April Haddon has spent years waiting to hate her stepmother. Ever since her father wrote to tell her that he had married a woman named Florence, April has stockpiled her loathing in preparation for the day when they would finally meet. And when they do, she is not disappointed. April's father is dead, and she has returned to Midhampton to claim her inheritance. Only Florence stands in her way. Appointed April's guardian until the young girl comes of age, Florence seems to relish her newfound control over her stepdaughter. But as April writes in her diary, she would kill Florence if she thought she could get away with it – and perhaps she'll get the chance. Over the next eleven days, April and Florence engage in a battle of wills that leads inexorably to tragedy. But is Florence truly an evil stepmother – or is April not as innocent as she appears?

Asa Baker stares at his typewriter, cursing the empty page. His publishers are clamoring for another Western novel, but Baker is fed up with cowboys. He needs a new kind of hero – and one is about to fall in his lap. His friend Jerry Burke is one of the top cops in El Paso, and he's about to drag Baker into a plot more outrageous – and more dangerous – than anything the Old West has to offer. A troubling personal ad has appeared in the local paper. Addressed to Burke, it warns that someone will die tonight at 11:41 p.m. And as promised, the body appears at 11:41 sharp – setting Burke and Baker on the hunt for an ingenious serial killer who advertises murder, but never leaves a trail.

A woman sits in the Encanto Hotel on Biscayne Bay, rationing a bottle of scotch and waiting for a call that could change her life. She clutches a marriage announcement that has chilled her to the core. At last, there is a knock at the door, but it isn't the person she was expecting. Instead she is greeted by a man she thought dead, a man who tortured her for far too long. She offers him a drink and then presses a pistol to his chest and pulls the trigger until the clip is empty and her tormenter is dead. In a state of panic, she calls the only man who can help – Miami's toughest private detective, Mike Shayne – and lies. She says her name is Carla, that the dead man is her husband, and that it was her daughter, Vicky, who pulled the trigger. She may think she knows how to play the game, but she'll soon find that Shayne is a dangerous man to toy with – and he doesn't stay fooled for long.

A desperate want ad draws Mike Shayne into a tangled murder plot. It starts with a post in the classifieds. A woman calls for a red-blooded American, a soldier-of-fortune type willing to do anything if the price is right – even commit murder. This catches the eye of Tim Rourke, hotshot reporter, who passes it on to Mike Shayne, the legendary Miami detective. Rourke believes the ad was placed by a lonely housewife hoping to pay someone to knock off her husband, and he thinks the story could be front-page news. He just needs someone willing to answer the call – and Shayne has the reddest blood in Miami. Shayne responds to the ad, and finds the situation far stranger than anything he and Rourke could have dreamed up. His new employer is sweet, young, and scared for her life. Plus, there's $50,000 at stake – and a life on the line. The Homicidal Virgin is the 38th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A beautiful woman vanishes while on vacation in Miami, and it's up to Mike Shayne to find her. When Ellen Harris leaves New York for her 2-week trip to Miami, her husband playfully reminds her to be careful. In a city famous for playboys, loan sharks, and gigolos, a beautiful woman can find trouble – and Ellen wants all the trouble she can get. Although she adores her husband, she intends to have fun, and that means flirting with every man she sees, from bellhops to bartenders and everyone in between. From all outward appearances, it looks like she plans to have a different man in her room every night she's there, but the very first morning, the maid finds her bed undisturbed. Ellen's husband arrives 5 days later, desperate to find out why his wife hasn't been answering his calls. She hasn't been seen at the hotel since just after checking in, and the only man who can track her down is Miami's toughest detective: Mike Shayne. Murder by Proxy is the 43rd book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Out of jail and hungry for revenge, a career criminal comes after Mike Shayne. They call him the Actor. An armed robber with a sense of style, Bram Clayton planned every heist with care, slipping so convincingly into the actions and motives of his characters that even experts couldn't tell him apart from the real thing. He played electricians, salesmen, even a bank examiner, but for the last 13 years he's been stuck in a single role: jailbird. When Clayton finally earns freedom, he has no trouble convincing the warden he's going to stay straight, but the Actor is about to pull the greatest heist of his career. There's a beautiful woman waiting for Clayton when he gets out. An old friend with an ulterior motive, she comes equipped with a bottle of whiskey, a carton of cigarettes, clean clothes, a gun, and a plan for a $200,000 heist so simple that it's almost a sure thing – so long as it isn't upset by Clayton's hunger for revenge against the man who put him away: legendary detective Mike Shayne. Target: Mike Shayne is the 34th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Mike Shayne battles blackmailers to recover a valuable missing bracelet. The picture in the paper shows one of the most beautiful women in Miami wearing nothing more than a negligee. She's in her boudoir, posing for police photographers, pointing to where her emerald bracelet used to be. The bauble is worth $110,000, and whoever took it is either brave, crazy, or stupid, because Laura Peralta's husband is the second most dangerous man in Miami. The most dangerous, of course, is Miami's toughest private detective, Mike Shayne. After three weeks, the police have gotten nowhere, and Julio Peralta turns to Shayne. But there's more at stake than a missing bracelet. And for the sake of the lovely Laura, Shayne will have to brave blackmailers, burglars, and a killer with a sense of style. The Careless Corpse is the 41st book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Mike Shayne finds himself caught up in a strange conspiracy when he's invited to Los Angeles by a terrified woman. It's the end of summer and Miami is as quiet as the grave. To Mike Shayne, the city's most notorious private detective, it seems as though he'll never have another case like the ones that made his reputation: matters of life and death that can only be solved by quick thinking, fast fists, and an itchy trigger finger. And then comes the letter from Los Angeles. It holds a plane ticket, half a $1,000 bill, and a desperate appeal. Come to L.A., begs the woman who penned the letter, or it will be my death sentence. Before he even lands in L.A., Shayne is enmeshed in a plot straight out of Hollywood. And when his mysterious client proves impossible to find, the detective worries he's been lured into a deadly trap. Never Kill a Client is the 44th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

When a crime wave grips Miami, Mike Shayne comes home to fight In the city room of the Courier, a reporter blocks out the clatter of typewriters to tell Miami the truth. In the past week, three murders have been committed in Miami Beach, and Timothy Rourke is the only person who sees the connection. As the mayor and the chief of police deny rumors of a crime wave, Rourke hollers from page one: Organized crime has taken over Miami, and the bloodshed has only just begun. Rourke is beaten to a pulp for exposing the mob's dirty dealings, and then he discovers a hot-eyed blonde in his apartment packing a.32. The situation is spinning out of control, and only one man can save the city from itself: Mike Shayne. He left Miami for New Orleans after the death of his beloved—and he will return with all the fury of an avenging angel.

When a blackmail scheme goes wrong, Mike Shayne is left to pick up the pieces Bert Jackson could have been a great reporter, if he had the patience for it. Married to a woman with expensive taste, Jackson has spent himself into the kind of debt that he'll never pay off at $62.50 a week. He needs a big score, and he needs it tonight. Working the city hall beat, Jackson has stumbled upon the greatest corruption scandal in Miami history. If he publishes it, he could win a Pulitzer. But it's money that he wants, and he'll risk death to get it. Using the information in his story, Jackson plans to blackmail a powerful local official for $10,000, and he asks Mike Shayne for help. Shayne has seen too many blackmail artists wind up dead to get involved with something like this, and he warns Jackson to stay away. When the reporter turns up dead, it's up to Shayne to uncover his final scoop.

A friend's disappearance sends Mike Shayne to the Caribbean Timothy Rourke made his name as a Miami crime reporter, but he never knew true evil until he came to the Caribbean. In a corrupt tropical country, where beatings and murders pass for ordinary politics, a student group begs him to report the truth about the dictatorship. Rourke has never been one to refuse a story—or a beautiful blonde—but he soon discovers that the men who run this country are experts in more than hiding the truth;they also know how to make a reporter disappear. When Rourke's investigations get the best of him, it falls to Mike Shayne to save his life. As revolution simmers under the tropical sun, Shayne takes on the worst the dictatorship has to offer. The officials may be ruthless killers, but they have never met the likes of Shayne.

Mike Shayne leaps into danger after a fugitive collapses on his secretary's floor Before she met Mike Shayne, Lucy Hamilton was just another young woman living in New Orleans. She shared an apartment with her best friend, Arlene, a vivacious young thing with a thousand gentleman callers, but none were as debonair as Arlene's brother, Jack Bristow. Since she started working for Shayne, Lucy hasn't had any time for beaus, and she hasn't thought of Bristow in years—not until the day he shows up on her Miami doorstep begging for help. He collapses, blood seeping from a wound in his chest, and Lucy helps him to the bedroom, knowing that he's minutes from death. The police are chasing Bristow for a murder Lucy's sure he didn't commit, and by the time Shayne gets the cops off their backs, Bristow has escaped through a window. Shayne must track down the bleeding man in order to learn what really happened—for both the sake of an old friend and the sake of justice.

Mike Shayne tangles with a Miami Beach blackmailer on behalf of a long-forgotten friend It's been four years since his wife was murdered, and Mike Shayne isn't keen to remember the old days. He's back in Miami when he sees Christine, once his wife's closest friend, and something in his gut tells him to stay away. Newly married, Christine has racked up $10,000 in gambling debts, and she's ready to pawn the only valuable thing she owns: a string of priceless pearls. She asks Shayne to make the handoff. The setup smells fishy, but he agrees to help—not for Christine's sake, but for the memory of the woman he loved. Through a bit of quick thinking, Shayne erases the debt without losing the pearls. His client should be overjoyed, but Christine is furious that he changed the plan. Before long, Shayne is trapped in a web of blackmail and murder, where the number one suspect is Mike Shayne.

Mike Shayne investigates a murder committed by an amnesiac Arthur Devlin wakes up so hungover that for a moment, he thinks the ship is sinking. As he gets his bearings, he realizes the only storm is inside his own head—and he isn't on a ship at all. The last thing he remembers is being handed another drink at his going-away party. That was twelve days ago. Devlin has awoken in a sleazy hotel room, dressed in a stranger's ratty clothes, with a bump on his forehead and a dead man at his feet. The phone rings: A woman who calls him Joey asks if he went through with the murder. Devlin has no choice but to say yes. To find out if he's really a killer, Devlin hires Mike Shayne. Shayne has twenty-four hours to fill in the gaps of his client's memory—and he will discover things that Devlin would rather stay forgotten.

Mike Shayne battles a gang of jewel thieves for a priceless ruby bracelet Mike Shayne is just passing through the jeweler's when Mark Dustin comes for the rubies. A big shot gambler with expensive taste, Dustin is looking for an anniversary gift for his wife, and he demands the best. For $200,000, he buys the shop's greatest treasure: a bracelet of flawless rubies, finer than any in the country. The first time his wife puts it on her wrist, however, a gang of thieves rams into their car and snatches the bracelet. The only person who knew about the purchase, the only man who could have organized the robbery, was Mike Shayne. The Miami police have been looking for an excuse to jail Shayne for years, and now they'll have their chance—all for the sake of six little stones, as red as a woman's blood.

A strange disappearance leads Mike Shayne to investigate a death on the open sea Mike Shayne is savoring a nightcap when his secretary calls in a panic. Lucy Hamilton doesn't scare easily and as soon as Shayne hears her voice, he knows this must be a matter of life and death. Hamilton's neighbor has vanished, and only Shayne knows Miami well enough to find him. One of only 2 survivors in a recent plane crash, Jasper Groat had been acting strange ever since his life was spared, and tonight, he walked away and didn't come back. The'lucky'survivor was carrying a deadly secret. During the 9 days he spent adrift at sea, Groat filled a diary with damning details about the accident and its aftermath. There are people who might kill to get their hands on the incriminating journal—that is, if Shayne doesn't find it first.

In a mining town, Mike Shayne finds that buried secrets can be deadly The miners are striking in Centerville, Kentucky, and the town is about to explode. Three men have been killed in the past week, and Charles Roche fears he will be next. Heir to the Roche mining fortune, he sees death in every shadow, and the only man who can save his life is in Miami. Roche writes to world-famous detective Mike Shayne, offering a $5,000 retainer to come to Centerville and save his life. Shayne cashes the check and hops on a plane, but by the time he gets to Kentucky, his client is already dead. The mines stretch for miles underneath Centerville, and the whole town is rotten to the core. For the sake of his murdered client, Shayne takes on the entire corrupt city. If he's lucky, he'll save Centerville's soul. If he's not, he'll end up buried much deeper than six feet underground.

A beachside slaying threatens to put Mike Shayne behind bars No one at the hotel gives a damn about Walter Carson. There aren't any letters for him at the front desk or calls at reception. Bellboys, waiters, and bartenders all ignore him. When he reaches out to strangers, they look away. He's alone in the world—and worse, he's gripped by an icy terror that follows him everywhere. One night, it catches up to him. Carson, unloved and unknown, is found dead with a bullet between his eyes. In the dead man's pocket, the police find a newspaper clipping about Mike Shayne, Miami's toughest private investigator. The local chief is convinced Shayne was connected to the murder, and he will do whatever is necessary to put the detective behind bars. Shayne can handle the cops—it's Carson's widow that he needs to worry about.

To save a judge's daughter, Mike Shayne must invade the red-light district For twenty years, Judge Nigel Lansdowne has been one of Washington's greatest progressives. The red-baiters in Congress would do anything to destroy his reputation, and they may have found the perfect weapon. Her name is Julia, but when she dances she goes by Dorinda. The judge's daughter came to Miami in search of a new life, and she found it dancing nude in the city's infamous red-light district. Mike Shayne is hired to bring Julia home before the judge's enemies learn of her new career, but his real job will be keeping her alive. Someone in Miami wants this beautiful dancer dead, and only Mike Shayne can help her. In the nightclubs of Miami Beach, music is played to a deadly beat.

A blonde with a rotten husband sends Mike Shayne into the past Mike Shayne isn't scared of anyone, but that doesn't mean he feels comfortable in a tuxedo. He squeezes into the monkey suit for the sake of Lucy Hamilton, his beloved secretary, and grins and bears his way through a meal at the ultra-posh Martinique. The detective is just settling into the evening when he sees a woman who stops his blood cold: Lydia Kane, a friend of his late wife. She's polite, but her eyes show mortal terror. The reunion is soon broken up by Lydia's husband, a squat thug who explodes at Shayne for talking to his wife. The men exchange harsh words, then swift punches, which causes Shayne and Lucy to be kicked out of Martinique. When Lydia is murdered soon after, Shayne suspects her husband is the killer. But how can the detective prove it when the police are hot on his own trail?

A reporter anticipates her own death, and Mike Shayne hunts the killer Sara Morton is one of the toughest reporters in Miami. She made a name for herself in the twenties when she lied her way into Al Capone's mob to get an exclusive, and she has been making headlines—and enemies—ever since. When Morton gets a note reading,'You have three days to get out of Miami alive,'she doesn't panic. But as the days tick by and more notes arrive, she begins to fear for her life. She attempts to hire Mike Shayne, Miami's sharpest PI, but Shayne doesn't come fast enough. By the time he meets Sara Morton, her throat has been slashed with a pair of scissors. The killer has delivered as promised. Shayne never quits on his clients, even if they aren't alive to pay their bills. Finding the murderer will be the biggest news story to hit Miami in a decade—and it's a shame Morton won't be there to report it.

Mike Shayne has 2 hours to solve a murder—or else watch his lover die It's 2 hours before midnight when the woman in room 360 calls the front desk to report a murder. The house detective sprints upstairs, but finds room 360 totally empty: no killer, no victim, and no woman begging for help. Across town, Mike Shayne is driving back to his office after a romantic evening with Lucy Hamilton. Despite the quiet and the moonlight, in his bones he knows that this is not a night for romance. There's death in the air. Later, a woman appears at Shayne's office, claiming her brother was murdered at the Hibiscus Hotel. A man follows in her wake, insisting that he's her brother, and the woman is insane. Then a killer corners Lucy in her apartment, giving Shayne until midnight to solve the mystery and save his lover's life.

In a strange town, Mike Shayne meets a deadly damsel in distress Mike Shayne is 3 hours from Miami when the sun dips below the horizon and he decides to make a pit stop. For Shayne, that means cognac, and the only bar in town is a lonely little dive whose inhabitants don't look friendly. Shayne doesn't care. The barkeep pulls a dusty bottle down from the top shelf, and Shayne is settling into his drink when a blonde walks through the door. As the detective admires her, she raises her hand... and with a gesture of her dainty little finger, marks him for death. Two men wrestle Shayne outside, beat him senseless, and try to run him over with their car. To escape this hayseed town alive, Shayne will have to discover the identity of the dame from the bar—and why she chose for him to die.

Mike Shayne investigates the case of a murdered husband and a high-stakes embezzlement plot Mike Shayne finds the dead man in the bedroom. The corpse sports a bowtie, polished black shoes, and a tidy little hole right between his eyes. His name is James Wallace, and no one could've killed him but his wife. Shayne's lover, Lucy Hamilton, begs him to clear the widow's name. He promises do his best, but even for a detective who's famous for solving impossible cases, this one may be out of reach. In Wallace's pockets are a passport and two tickets for South America—neither of which were intended for his wife. Furthermore, $100,000 recently disappeared from the deceased's office, making Wallace look like an adulterer, a conman, and a thief. The truth, Shayne will find, is far less pretty.

A pulp writer tumbles into a mystery after an encounter at an awards banquet For more than a decade, Brett Halliday has made a living chronicling the adventures of the hard-nosed private detective Mike Shayne. At the banquet for the 1953 Edgar Awards, Halliday is dismayed to find the pulp field overrun by hacks who think X-rated smut and blood-soaked gore are enough to make a mystery. He's about to head home when he meets Elsie Murray, a beautiful author who appreciates a good whodunit—and who has enough of her own troubles to fill a thousand paperbacks. When Elsie is found murdered in her hotel room, the police suspect the last man she was seen with. Halliday is in a jam, and he knows better than anyone else that the only man who can save him is Mike Shayne.

A naked intruder leads Mike Shayne to one of the strangest cases of his career Mike Shayne is never surprised to wake up with a woman in his bedroom—unless she's a stranger. The private investigator is dozing when he hears someone creep through the door, undress, and slip into bed. When he turns on the light, the lady is just as shocked as he is. Her name is Nora, and she was told she'd find her husband here. Fortunately, she's much better off having found Shayne. Nora's spouse came to Miami to establish residency, which is the first step toward getting a divorce. By slipping into Shayne's bedroom, she would've spoiled his scheme, but someone gave her the wrong information. Her husband is staying on the floor above. When Nora finally reaches the right room, she finds that the man she's been looking for has been murdered, and her only alibi is a detective who's starting to wish the naked dame had never found her way into his room.

A chance encounter at the airport leads Mike Shayne into a ring of counterfeiters Mike Shayne has been trying to leave Miami for weeks, but something keeps stopping him from returning to New Orleans. He's about to board the midnight flight to Louisiana when his secretary calls and tells him not to bother. His stalling has cost them another client, and she's fed up. She quits, and Shayne realizes that she was the only thing tying him to New Orleans. A man approaches Shayne to beg for his ticket, paying for it with two hundred dollar bills that seem too good to be true. Mike Shayne is staying in Miami—but how long will he stay alive? The man's wife appears at the airport, a jaw-dropping blonde too lovely to be married to such a weasel. Shayne follows her, embarking on a night out on the town that quickly turns deadly. The money may be fake, but the bullets are all too real.

A mysterious woman draws Mike Shayne into a twisted murder plot The call comes just as Mike Shayne is pouring a much-needed cognac. A gangster's voice warns,'Stay away from Wanda Weatherby.'Simple enough—except that Shayne has never heard of any woman by that name. A few minutes later, he receives another call, from a woman desperately worried about Wanda Weatherby. A third call then comes in from the woman herself: Wanda Weatherby begs Mike Shayne to save her life. He drives to her apartment, hoping that she'll be able to explain just what is going on, but he's too late. Wanda Weatherby is dead. Just who she was, and why every criminal in Miami seemed to know her name, will take some figuring out. By the time he's done with this mystery, Mike Shayne will wish he had never picked up the phone.

MURDER AT THE RIO GRANDETen years ago, private eye Mike Shayne did a job for one of the richest men in El Paso, digging up dirt on a boy courting the tycoon's daughter. Now the daughter's back, all grown up and dangerous. And so's Shayne – but this time it's to investigate murder…