Crime Does Not Pay #101

Private eye Chip Gardner gets tangled up in a dangerous web of blackmail, stolen documents, and murder when he's hired to track down a missing man connected to a crooked politician's extortion scheme. With a platinum blonde named Patsy Dale, a ruthless power broker named Tyder, and a mysterious fixer pulling strings from the shadows, Gardner must navigate between greedy criminals and deadly complications to uncover the truth before more bodies pile up. The deeper he digs into this case of corruption and murder-for-hire, the more he realizes that everyone involved is willing to kill to keep their secrets safe.

When Roger Knight's wayward son Ira falls in with a pair of small-time criminals and a robbery turns deadly, the respectable politician finds himself championing capital punishment as his path to the state senate—unaware that the very crime fueling his crusade bears his own son's fingerprints. As Ira embraces his newfound taste for violence and continues on a dangerous spree, Roger's righteous campaign for justice unknowingly tightens the noose around his own family. A grim tale of ambition, corruption, and the terrible price of looking away from what's right in front of you.

Marty Kling's reckless streak—stealing, conning women, and muscling in where he isn't wanted—finally catches up with him when he's gunned down outside Galbraith's flower shop in a six-shot ambush. Inspector Rodney and witness James Druke must untangle the case from among Kling's many enemies: a spurned woman he swindled, a florist he humiliated, a petty criminal he cheated, and a café owner with knowledge of his lucky day at the races. With a .38 recovered and a list of suspects each with motive and opportunity, the question becomes not who *could* have killed Marty Kling—it's who *did*.