Crime Does Not Pay #92

Chip Gardner, private eye, takes on a murder case when a woman insists her sister's death—ruled an accident by the police—was actually homicide, and a theater ticket stub becomes his only solid lead. As Gardner digs into the mystery, he uncovers a web of stolen engagement rings, a mysterious man named Lyle Scanlon, and criminals willing to kill to keep their secrets buried. With danger closing in from all sides, Gardner must piece together the truth before more bodies turn up.

Three ex-convicts orchestrate the perfect frame job, luring an unsuspecting electrician named Bill Handley to a murder scene where he's set up for a killing he didn't commit. When Handley wakes to find himself the prime suspect with damning evidence stacked against him, he makes a desperate choice that sets off a manhunt through the city's streets. As the noose tightens, the real truth behind the frame begins to unravel in ways no one expected.

During Mardi Gras in New Orleans, a murder unfolds at the sinister Mephisto Club when Harvey Quinn is shot dead—but the case takes a twisted turn when a masked killer frames the club's Grand Demon, Morton Graham, for the crime. Inspector Le Fevre must untangle a web of deception involving a secret exit, a stolen reserve fund, and a killer hiding in plain sight among the club's council members. With clues scattered throughout the club's throne room and courtyard, can you solve this case of the homicidal masquerader before the truth is revealed?

Superstitious gambler Freiden looks guilty of murdering a young woman—nervous, evasive, constantly clutching his lucky rabbit's foot—but Detective Criley has no solid evidence to hold him. So Criley engineers a psychological trap, closing in with planted clues and calculated pressure to see if he can break Freiden's nerve and force a confession. As the walls tighten around the suspect, even Criley may not anticipate how far desperation will push a frightened man.