Who killed the bride and groom? Everyone thinks it was "that troublemaker," Peta Donald. Gossips say she came home to stop the wedding. That jealousy led her to murder. No one on Northwind Island believes that Peta has changed since her youth. And nothing has changed in town. Peta is still shunned by everyone. Everyone except Lawson Mills, whose appearance on the island is as mysterious as the double murders. Peta is sure he has an ulterior motive for helping clear her name. Full of questions about another set of murders, Lawson is secretive about himself. Until they discover what's behind Peta's deadly homecoming…

From the corner of his eye, he sees the massive arm swinging down in a hard chop toward his neck. He tries to avoid it but it is too unexpected. There is a numbing blow which snaps his head to one side. He feels the keys slip from his hand as he sinks into darkness. His last thoughts are about the attack. The unknown assailant's sole purpose is to kill him. Why? A mysterious letter sent to Alan Bronze encourages him to return to his childhood hometown to handle the estate of his deceased grandfather, a man he hated and who hated him in return. Instead of the expected paper shuffling, Alan is soon struggling just to stay alive. He has unwittingly walked into the midst of a major drug distribution center-set up by his own grandfather. The old man's corrupt partners are the leading citizens of the small mountain town, and now they plan to take care of Alan-just like they took care of his grandfather. With the help of the well-connected editor of the local newspaper, Alan decides he's going to have to take control of this "kill or be killed" situation.

When Spence Harden and Jeff, his writing partner and sometime lover, move into the house once owned by Spence's murdered parents, they have no idea what awaits them. First, they discover someone is stealing items from them, but have no clue who, or why. And then the unthinkable happens. Jeff is killed and Spence is framed for his murder. Crime reporter Gregg Rowe wants to help Spence clear his name. All Spence needs to do is decide if he believes Gregg, or if the man himself is the killer. Once Gregg convinces Spence he's telling the truth, the pair set out to discover if there is a connection between Jeff's murder and that of Spence's parents ten years earlier ... while fighting their growing attraction to each other.

Pathologist Toni Day knows her mother like the back of her hand. When her mother calls and asks her to investigate the disappearance of her best friend’s husband, Dick, she knows better than to argue. Soon, Toni and her husband, Hal, are on their way back to her hometown of Long Beach, California, where another mystery awaits. Dick’s wife, Doris, is convinced that the historic house she shares with Dick is haunted. To make things even more complicated, Doris is also suffering from a mysterious illness. When Toni and Hal arrive, Doris takes a sudden turn for the worse and ends up in a coma. While doctors struggle to diagnose and treat, Toni explores the historic house looking for clues. After she unearths evidence suggesting that Dick may not be who he seems, as well as a malfunctioning dumbwaiter, a laird’s lug, a secret staircase, and a half-empty bottle of white arsenic, she also finds Dick’s body. As a whirlwind investigation ensues that exposes a decades-old scheme and serial murders, Toni herself nearly becomes the final victim. A Deadly Homecoming is the gripping tale of a pathologist’s journey back to her hometown to solve a complex murder case that leaves her own life precariously hanging in the balance.

This work is a composite index of the complete runs of all mystery and detective fan magazines that have been published, through 1981. Added to it are indexes of many magazines of related nature. This includes magazines that are primarily oriented to boys' book collecting, the paperbacks, and the pulp magazine hero characters, since these all have a place in the mystery and detective genre.

Pathologist Toni Day and her husband, Hal, are mystified when she starts receiving grisly Christmas cards depicting murders, each accompanied by a twisted verse from The Twelve Days of Christmas, and she and her partners are suddenly inundated with autopsies on the corresponding bodies. The victims are members of a jury that convicted Toni’s old boyfriend Robbie of kidnapping and sent him to prison. Robbie is now out on parole and is presumably systematically killing off the jury that put him there, but the true identity of the Jury Killer becomes unclear when another parolee, a pretty female police detective, and a newspaper reporter with an icepick get involved. To complicate matters further, Toni’s parents are visiting for Christmas. Toni teams up with her stepfather Nigel, a retired Scotland Yard chief inspector, to interpret clues and assist the police in a race against time to catch the killer or killers before they wipe out the entire jury and then come after Toni and Hal.

"For my baby's safety, I must give her up…" An old letter is all Kristin Perry has of her birth mother. When the Witness Protection Program couldn't keep mother or daughter safe, the woman fled "underground." With the help of private investigator Zane Black, Kristin tries to track her down. Instead, though, she finds herself the target of a series of deadly "accidents." Zane's still searching for her missing mother—but now Kristin's starting to wonder if her family reunion will be the death of them all….