Brett Halliday: 74 books

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...

A teenage girl and her wicked stepmother battle to the death in this pulp fiction classic from the legendary author of the Mike Shayne Mysteries. Ever since her father wrote to say he had married a woman named Florence, April Haddon has nursed a bitter hatred for her stepmother. Now, years...

A double shot of iconic Miami PI Mike Shayne—“one of the best of the tough sleuths” (The New York Times). 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...

In this classic crime novel from the creator of Mike Shayne, a writer and an El Paso cop chase a serial killer who taunts them with ads in the local paper.   Action Western novelist Asa Baker is in bad need of a good story when he gets a call from his old friend, Jerry Burke. One of El Paso’s top...

From the author of the Mike Shayne Mysteries: A man’s obsessive affair with his wife’s teenage sister takes him down a dark and dangerous path.   A quiet construction engineer in Denver, Colorado, Charlie Dell doesn’t need any complications in his life. But his wife, Irma, insists they take...

MURDER AT THE RIO GRANDE Ten 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…* *

“One of the best of the tough sleuths” tangles with blackmail and murder in Miami Beach in this hardboiled detective tale by one of the all-time greats (The New York Times). The day he met Phyllis Brighton, Mike Shayne saved her from jumping out a window—and he has been rescuing her ever...

A mentally ill woman is accused of killing her mother in this classic Mike Shayne novel from the legendary detective author. Mike Shayne has just poured himself a drink when Phyllis Brighton tries to throw herself out the window of his downtown apartment. Luckily, he blocks her just before...

After hearing a murder over the phone, Mike Shayne searches for the killer Woken by the telephone, Mike Shayne is disoriented. Though he has been alone since his wife was murdered, he has not gotten used to sleeping by himself. The voice on the other end of the telephone snaps him back into...

Mike Shayne investigates an impossible murder in the Big Easy It’s not often that Mike Shayne runs with an honorable crowd, but there is a lieutenant in his office mourning the fiancée who killed herself the day before. Honest and heartbroken, he begs this hardened private investigator for...

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...

A private investigator’s Colorado vacation is cut short by gold miner’s murder in this classic Mike Shayne novel. Private inspector Mike Shayne and his young bride, Phyllis, have escaped Miami for a badly needed vacation, taking in a theatre festival in the picturesque mountains of Colorado....

Mike Shayne investigates the connection between a flirtatious wife, a husband blinded by jealousy, and a murdered boss 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...

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...