The Internet Book Database of Fiction

#	Date	Publisher	Binding	Cover
1	1940-08-19	Holt

Blurb:: What this Mystery is about—

A Miami fat cat makes an amazing PROPOSITION to a private detective. Police find BEDROOM peopled with lovely nude woman choked to death with her own blue silk nightgown—and an ex-convict with a hole in his head. A long-legged beauty puts 2 and 2 together and they add up to a mess of TROUBLE for a smooth-talking heel. A trigger-happy guy interferes with a very important TELEPHONE CALL and barely lives to regret it. An absinthe-drinking TIGER GIRL who loves to get drunk in the daytime. Three oddly assorted people calmly sit down to select a FALL GUY to take a murder rap. A detective's beautiful wife gets a BRAINSTORM and talks herself into a night in jail. A torn-up LETTER follows a strange and crooked trail and finally sends a man to the chair.

Wouldn't You Like to Know—
Why a leading citizen wants to cook up a shady swindle?
Why a girl shoots the man who showed her boy friend how to make a thousand dollars in a hurry?
How a reckless man escapes arrest in the inner sanctum of a police station?
Why a detective arranges to have himself arrested by the police of two cities?
YOU will find the answers as Mike Shayne works his way roughshod through the sort of case he loves—to a photo finish, with split-second timing and lives hanging in the balance, while Mike sits back and pulls the strings. This time the strings almost hang him.