A desperate want ad draws Mike Shayne into a tangled murder plot It starts 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. The Homicidal Virgin is the 37th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

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 help answering one simple, impossible question: Why? It’s a question Shayne has been asking ever since his wife was murdered in Miami and he moved to New Orleans to escape her memory. For the sake of a soldier, he will put his own mourning aside and try to explain a suicide that looks an awful lot like murder. Katrin Moe was working as a maid in the home of a wealthy New Orleans family when she was found locked in her room, the gas pumping full blast. Coincidentally, a priceless emerald necklace went missing from the house a few days before and the insurance company hired Shayne to find it. On the hunt for a killer, Shayne will find that the necklace and the crook are more closely related than meets the eye. Murder and the Married Virgin is the 10th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Mike Shayne tackles a baffling case of adultery and murder in the suburbs of Miami It’s the 4th and final day of the convention, and Marvin Blake is ready to go home. Dreading the evening’s festivities, he checks out of his hotel early and heads back to Sunray Beach, longing to see his wife, Ellie, and daughter, Sissy. When he reaches home late that night, his bedroom light is on—and his best friend’s car is parked in the driveway. His wife has been unfaithful, and Blake knows what he must do. He checks into a motel, pulls out the stationery, and prepares to take his life. The next morning, Ellie is found in her bedroom, stark naked and strangled to death. Miami reporter Tim Rourke picks up the story and brings in the only man who can untangle this web of lies: Mike Shayne. A seasoned professional, Shayne may think he’s seen it all, but he’ll soon find that, in suburbia, murder is never what it seems. Mike Shayne’s 50th Case is the 49th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Out of jail and hungry for revenge, a career criminal comes after Mike Shayne They call him the Actor. An armed robber with a sense of style, Bram Clayton planned every heist with care, slipping so convincingly into the actions and motives of his characters that even experts couldn’t tell him apart from the real thing. He played electricians, salesmen, even a bank examiner, but for the last 13 years he’s been stuck in a single role: jailbird. When Clayton finally earns freedom, he has no trouble convincing the warden he’s going to stay straight, but the Actor is about to pull the greatest heist of his career. There’s a beautiful woman waiting for Clayton when he gets out. An old friend with an ulterior motive, she comes equipped with a bottle of whiskey, a carton of cigarettes, clean clothes, a gun, and a plan for a $200,000 heist so simple that it’s almost a sure thing—so long as it isn’t upset by Clayton’s hunger for revenge against the man who put him away: legendary detective Mike Shayne. Target: Mike Shayne is the 33rd book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A chance encounter at the airport leads Mike Shayne into a ring of counterfeiters Mike Shayne has been trying to leave Miami for weeks, but something keeps stopping him from returning to New Orleans. He’s about to board the midnight flight to Louisiana when his secretary calls and tells him not to bother. His stalling has cost them another client, and she’s fed up. She quits, and Shayne realizes that she was the only thing tying him to New Orleans. A man approaches Shayne to beg for his ticket, paying for it with two hundred dollar bills that seem too good to be true. Mike Shayne is staying in Miami—but how long will he stay alive? The man’s wife appears at the airport, a jaw-dropping blonde too lovely to be married to such a weasel. Shayne follows her, embarking on a night out on the town that quickly turns deadly. The money may be fake, but the bullets are all too real. Counterfeit Wife is the 14th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A desperate doctor hires Mike Shayne for a case that starts with blackmail and ends with murder Back when Mike Shayne was living in New Orleans, his best friend, Tim Rourke, got shot on Miami Beach. Rourke, star reporter for the Miami News, was working on the story of his career when gunmen pumped him full of lead. It took quick work by the brilliant Dr. Ambrose to save him. So when the good doctor finds himself in mortal danger, Rourke repays the debt the only way he knows how: He calls Mike Shayne. Ambrose’s trouble started at the gambling tables. Now, he’s in the clutches of a blackmailer who intends to bleed $1,000 from him every month until the poor surgeon drops dead. At stake are Ambrose’s practice, his marriage, and his life. In an act of desperation, he asks Shayne to help him make the blackmail payoff, which the detective outright refuses to do. But when the doctor’s trouble turns into a murder case, Shayne will find himself unable to turn his back on the man who saved his friend’s life. Pay-Off in Blood is the 41st book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Mike Shayne battles a gang of jewel thieves for a priceless ruby bracelet Mike Shayne is just passing through the jeweler’s when Mark Dustin comes for the rubies. A big shot gambler with expensive taste, Dustin is looking for an anniversary gift for his wife, and he demands the best. For $200,000, he buys the shop’s greatest treasure: a bracelet of flawless rubies, finer than any in the country. The first time his wife puts it on her wrist, however, a gang of thieves rams into their car and snatches the bracelet. The only person who knew about the purchase, the only man who could have organized the robbery, was Mike Shayne. The Miami police have been looking for an excuse to jail Shayne for years, and now they’ll have their chance—all for the sake of six little stones, as red as a woman’s blood. Blood on the Stars is the 15th book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.