Blood On Biscayne Bay by Brett Halliday

Bait For Blackmail

Robert McGinnnis Cover

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 hand off. The setup smells fishy, but he agrees to help.

Printing History

Written by Davis Dresser (1904-1977)

copyright 1946

Dell Publishing Company

D342

February 1960

One Night With Nora by Brett Halliday

A Mike Shayne Mystery

Cover by Robert Stanley

A naked intruder leads Mike Shayne to one of the strangest cases of his career. He 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. She's not dead, but of course there's a corpse nearby and strong evidence implicates Shayne.

Printing History

Written by Davis Dresser (

Mead/Torquil

1953

Dell Publishing Company

D387

November 1960

#803

n/d

A World Of McGinnis: Day 1

Today we will start a journey and travel around to exciting destinations. Robert McGinnis has painted some of the best paperback covers and posters of anyone and we will see them in the wild at every location we go to. Come join us on that journey

A World of McGinnis

Day 1

We will start this journey off with the Mike Shayne's Never Kill A Client by Brett Halliday

The Homicidal Virgin by Brett Halliday

A desperate want ad draws Mike Shayne into a tangled murder plot

Robert McGinnis Cover

Lost Innocence

It started 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.

Printing History

 Davis Dresser (1904-1977)

Dell Publishing Company

D437

1961 

3698

November 1967

May 1972 

Guilty As Hell by Brett Halliday

Femmes Fatales

 

Robert McGinnis Cover

Teeny-Bopper Trouble
Deedee was jailbait, but her looks, curves and experience made her a very effective man-trap; and someone had decided to spring her on Mike Shayne.

Shayne had no time for minor problems like Deedee until he discovered she had some major connections with espionage, blackmail and murder. And by that time he had already been hooked...

 

Printing History 

Written by Robert Terrall

Dell Publishing Company

#3291

 November 1967

1975

December 1977

Nice Fillies Finish Last by Brett Halliday

Mike Shayne, the fastest moving private eye of all, 

bets his life he can beat a murderous mastermind to the finish lane.

Daily Double

The first luscious lady Mike Shayne ran into was a sweet young thing named Win who had the tiniest bikinis, the fewest of inhibitions, and the roughest, toughest of husbands. The second siren who put herself in his path was a blonde beauty named Claire, who had more money than morals, and whose loving husband gave her free rein. The big, red headed detective would have liked to spend more time with both of them, but he was in a race against death, on a track littered with corpses, and a vicious killer held the whip hand.......

Printing History

Written by Robert Tarrell

Dell Publishing Company

#6361

February 1966

 1970

December 1976

Bonus Cover

Robert McGinnis Cover

Date With A Dead Man by Brett Halliday

Mike Shayne

The Private Eye With  Top Form

Dives In A Case Of Mysteriously Missing Persons

And A Couple Of Million Bucks

The Nifty Nympho

She was rich but not rich enough, married but hungry for lovers, and would happily liquefy herself into oblivion at the pop of a cork. Mike Shayne was the solution to all her problems if she mixed her business and pleasure tight. A simple concoction of bribery and bed. But Shayne wouldn't buy it. All he wanted were some fast answers to some easy questions, not the least important of which was why a not so nice girl like that had made a date with a dead man.

Printing History

Written by Davis Dresser (1904-1977)

Dodd, Mead & Co

1959

John Long

1960

Dell Publishing 

 D374

September 1960 

Robert McGinnis Cover

February 1967

1664

Robert McGinnis Cover

July 1974

1664

Framed In Blood by Brett Halliday

Was It An Act Or Accident She Left The Door Open?

Cover by Robert Stanley

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. 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.

Printing History

Written by Davis Dresser (1904-1977)

Dodd, Mead, & Company 

1951

 

Dell Publishing Company

#578

1952

#958

September 1957

#2714

November 1962, June 1967

Bonus Covers

 

Robert McGinnis Cover

 

Robert McGinnis Cover

Fit To Kill by Brett Halliday

Mike Shayne

The Suave Private Eye With Deadly Cool

Tackles A Treacherous Case Of Sudden Death

Intrigue And Pulse Pounding Mystery

Robert McGinnis Cover

Contraband Blonde

She was a foxy, fair haired American in distress whom Tim Rourke had chivalrously smuggled into the states. She was also hot copy for an underground revolution story Tim had been working on in Central America, and he wanted an exclusive, in all areas. Mike Shayne had no intention of cutting in on his friend's private territory. But when Rourke was kidnapped, the blonde disappeared and a bug eyed killer began spilling blood, and mike knew it was time to step from the sidelines, only once he did, he became the perfect target for murder.

Printing History

Written by Robert Terrell

Dell Publishing Company

D#314

January 1959

#2562

February 1966

May 1976

Bonus Cover

Marked For Murder by Brett Halliday

When a crime wave grips Miami, Mike Shayne comes home to fight

Robert McGinnis Cover

 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. 

 Bonus Covers

Robert McGinnis Cover

Robert McGinnis Cover

Printing History

Written by Davis Dresser (1904-1977) 

Dodd Mead & Company 

1945

Dell Publishing Company

#222  1948

D291 1959 

#5386 June 1968

#5386 1970

Trivia

Originally published as “The Vanishing Blonde,” Mystery Book Magazine, December 1945

The Corpse Came Calling by Brett Halliday

Mike Shayne is accused of homicide after a dying man stumbles into his office

Robert McGinnis Cover

A corpse dropped in for cocktails 

Mike Shayne was more than a little disturbed. The police were not pleased either. How, they asked, could a man with three bullets in his chest drive to Mike's apartment, cross the lobby, take the elevator, and die only after he had reached Mike's door.  A good question and Shayne had to find an answer. Especially since it seemed so obvious that the principal cause of death had to be.... Mike Shayne.

Printing History

Written by Davis Dresser (1904-1977)

Dodd, Mead, and Company

1942

Dell Publishing Company
#168
April 1947

#342
September 1949
 

#842

March 1955

#D401

January 1961

#1496 

March 1964

Bonus Cover

Murder Spins The Wheel by Brett Halliday

Mike Shayne, the private eye who digs trouble, 

Gets in deeper than he should in a chilling case of lethal long shots and murder

Sexy

Secy

Theo Moore was the bright and beautiful very private secretary to one of the biggest gambling bosses in Florida. Harry Bass was also Theo's meal ticket, and when people began taking pot shots at him, Theo was distressed to say the least. When Harry called Mike Shayne in to help, Theo offered services to the redhead that went well beyond her required duties. Shayne thought it was terrific, until her secretarial dictation led him into an extremely unbusinesslike situation rife with dirty sex, dangerous drugs, and carefully organized murder.

Printing History

Written by Robert Terrall (1914-)

Dell Publishing Company

#6123

April 1966

November 1974

Other Covers

Robert McGinnis Cover

In a Deadly Vein by Brett Halliday

Shayne..........Cognac.......

An after dinner blonde....

     sudden death..............

Mike Shayne is on vacation when he met this gorgeous trick with a head of golden hair that's worth half of Fort Knox. Her old man has found a mine worth the other half. Putting them together, she stacks up as a lucky girl. Then she disappears. With her looks, and her old man's loot, Mike figured she's a diamond studded candidate for the morgue. That makes her his dish. After all, murder and blondes are Shayne's business.

Printing History

written by Davis Dresser (1904-1977)

copyright 1943

Mayflower Dell

#4016

1964

Trivia

This exact cover was featured on Frank Kane's Red Hot Ice

Frank Kane Red Hot Ice