“The Action Man” [excerpt] by Jay Flynn

The dawn seeped, thin and gray, through the restless morning fog, lightening the hardly-moving surface of the bay, alerting the birds in the live oaks and pine forests of the hillsides. It caused a rooster to crow and a dog to bark at the rooster. And in the house that backed up on the yard […]

“The Baby Doll Murders” [excerpt] by James O. Causey

Tierney’s room was three blocks off Fremont, on a quiet side street. He paid twenty a week for the converted bachelor apartment which consisted of one small bedroom and bathroom. In the bottom bureau drawer, hidden between two undershirts, was a hundred and eighty dollars. My stake, Tierney thought sardonically, putting the money into his […]

Excerpts from “Hostage for a Hood” and “The Merriweather File” by Lionel White

Lionel White wrote such clever and realistic crime novels that when a petty crook in France read one of his books, he used it as a blueprint for his own crime. It seemed clever to him, and foolproof, although a series of coincidences and flaws in human character made the scheme fail in the book. […]