WHEN IT COMES TO MURDER, THERE'S ALWAYS A CHOICE…The only thing more varied than how people are killed is the many, many ways people try to get away with this terrible crime. Now masterful mystery writer Dorothy Salisbury Davis brings together 23 classic stories of crime and suspense, whodunits and detective stories from some of the finest authors of the 1950s.Ross Macdonald's classic P.I. Lew Archer takes a chilling case in California, where the mob isn't the only deadly thing under the West Coast sun. Margaret Millar brings us the tale of the couple next door who ensnares their neighbor in a tangled web of love and deception. Margaret Manners invites us to a bar for a drink and a quick little story of a con man who got what he deserved—and how the man accused of his murder walked free. And Michael Gilbert brilliant detective Gladwyn Hughes must get to the bottom of an ambassador assassinated...

Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis delivers a thrilling tale of Cold War–era espionage and murderOne afternoon in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, Eric Mather is approached by two men, Tom and Jerry, with a business proposal: a bit of light espionage that may be considered treason. Eric's friend and colleague, physics professor Peter Bradley, is on his way back from an international conference in Athens. In his briefcase is a roll of film that must be confiscated to keep the Cold War from turning hot. Bradley won't miss this little roll of film, they say, and nobody will get hurt.When Bradley is stabbed to death in an apartment on East Tenth Street, Eric realizes he has made a bargain with the wrong people. Desperate to make up for betraying his friend, he ventures into a shadowy world of danger and intrigue as he sets out to learn everything he can about Tom and Jerry—two foreign agents engaged in an atomic game of cat and mouse.

A frightening confession leads a priest to hunt down a murderer in Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis's bestselling novel, which critic Anthony Boucher called one of the best detective stories of modern timesOn a hot Saturday night in Manhattan, Father Duffy sits in a confessional, growing alarmed as he listens to the voice of a distraught young man who speaks of bloody hair and a dead woman and a compulsion to do things with a hammer that he does not understand. Before the priest can persuade the man to confess to the police, the killer flees, still clutching the hammer.The next day, Father Duffy learns that a high-class call girl on the East Side has been savagely murdered, and no suspect has been found. As he searches for the disturbed young man who he fears will kill again, cerebral New York Police detective Sergeant Ben Goldsmith takes the lead in the investigation of the call-girl murder, racing against the clock to catch a very clever killer who, when...

Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis introduces one of her most winning heroines, Julie Hayes, a former actress turned fortune-teller who abruptly learns there is murder in her futureTwenty-five-year-old Julie Hayes is feeling overshadowed by her globe-trotting journalist husband and looking for some excitement and direction in life. On what amounts to a dare, she sets herself up as Friend Julie, a storefront fortune-teller in Manhattan's seedy Theater District.Now Julie finds herself concerned with the lives of the neighborhood eccentrics, old friends from the Actors Forum, and street characters such as Goldie the pimp, a wealthy gangster, and a young prostitute who wants Julie to help her escape The Life. But a man is found murdered in the girl's room—a man Julie can identify for the police. Thrust into the investigation of the man's death, Julie discovers a new direction for her life, but her tarot cards reveal a future she might not live to see.A...

A Grand Master of crime fiction, Dorothy Salisbury Davis introduces the redoubtable crime-solving Scottish housekeeper Mrs. Norris in this thrilling tale of family secrets and murderGeneral Ransom Jarvis is writing his memoirs about a distinguished career that spanned five continents and three wars. Along the way, he stumbles upon a scandal about a philandering ancestor—America's ambassador to England who went on to become president of the United States. But a very clear and present danger embroils the irascible retired general in a deepening quagmire of deceit, fraud, and murder. Enter Mrs. Norris, the housekeeper who has been almost a mother to Ransom's son since he was a boy. Jimmie is currently running for governor of New York and enjoying his budding relationship with sculptor Helene Joyce. A sudden death changes everything, plunging Jimmie and Mrs. Norris into a bizarre case headed up by Jasper Tully, chief investigator for the Manhattan district attorney's office....

In Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis's third Julie Hayes mystery, the intrepid former actress and amateur sleuth returns to Broadway to catch a killerJulie Hayes has come up in the world. Her days as a starving actress behind her, she is married to a globe-trotting journalist, keeping up with her friends from her fortune-telling days, and celebrating a year of gainful employment at the New York Daily.But one of her colleagues is found shot dead in his office—and Julie may have been the last person to see him alive.With a reporter's nose for a scoop, Julie investigates the violent death of one of New York's most infamous—and despised—gossip columnists. But his is not the only troubling death in the past few weeks. A Broadway publicist took his own life by jumping from the George Washington Bridge. Could the two deaths be connected? Determined to find out, Julie gets caught in a violent drama of lies, scandal, and deadly revenge that lights...

Fifteen spine-tingling stories of murder, mayhem, and the macabre from one of America's finest crime authorsDorothy Salisbury Davis has become known as one of America's finest crime writers through such novels as A Gentle Murderer, The Clay Hand, and Death of an Old Sinner. Her short stories have also won acclaim since they first started to appear in 1952. Now, here are fifteen of them collected in one volume.Lost Generation is classic Dorothy Salisbury Davis: a chilling story of small-town policemen who cross the line between good and evil. In A Matter of Public Notice, a midwestern town is set on edge by three strangulations of women who live alone. Spring Fever introduces readers to a farmer's wife who finds romance to be a fatal attraction. By the Scruff of the Soul presents a case of sibling rivalry turned deadly. And in Mrs. Norris Observes, the inimitable crime-solving housekeeper happens upon an explosive scene at the New York Public Library. These and ten other stories...

An engrossing crime novel set in New York's Little Italy from Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury DavisThey are a secret society in New York's Little Italy. The Little Brothers swear to a strict code. While they carry out good works, they believe in using the Killing Eye on evildoers. When sixteen-year-old Angelo is put up for membership, he is not sure he wants to join. But the assignment the society demands of him sounds easy—to put the Eye on an old shopkeeper named Grossman who is suspected of dealing heroin. Then Grossman is stabbed to death and the police have only one suspect: the Italian boy who spent the week outside his shop, watching and waiting for a stranger to die.Alongside Angelo's story, a police investigation unfolds, led by Lieutenant Marks, a cop with a heart and a brain, who is willing to take risks in tracing a series of complicated Mafia connections to catch the true killer.