Pay-Off #2

Jewelry merchant J.S. Blick's superstitious nature—his fear of broken mirrors, unlucky numbers, and especially the cursed "Mystic Eye" pendant from Egypt—makes him an easy mark when a masked thief strikes during a sale to a rival dealer. Ace reporter Margo Mason watches the whole affair unfold and realizes that Blick's own irrational beliefs may be exactly what a clever criminal counted on to pull off the heist.

When a brutal murder lands Detective Livright on the case, three suspects emerge—each with motive and opportunity—but the ballistics don't add up. As two of them confess their attempts on the victim's life, Livright must untangle who actually pulled the trigger, discovering that sometimes the smallest slip of the tongue reveals the guilty party. A sharp whodunit that proves detective work is as much about listening as it is about investigating.

Two criminals fleeing California escape to Boston, where they rob and kill a candy store owner—but when they flee to Chicago, two innocent hitchhikers are arrested and sentenced for the murder. A detective's discovery of an incriminating diary entry exposes the shocking truth: the real killers have been caught, and the condemned men in Boston's prison are their exact doubles. Can justice be restored before an innocent pair pays the ultimate price?

When Judge Cyrus Taylor is killed by a booby-trapped birthday present, Detective Lt. Pete Standard must sift through a household of suspects—each with their own reasons to resent the dead judge. Standard's sharp eye for detail, particularly a handful of nails examined under the laboratory's ortho-stereoscope, becomes the key to unmasking the killer and solving the crime.

When the obsessive model Peppi Drake loses her beauty in a car accident, her descent into madness leads her to exact a terrible revenge on the young women who've replaced her in the spotlight—leaving a trail of murders marked by a gruesome calling card hidden in a hat box. As bodies pile up and the evidence points in unexpected directions, the killer's unraveling scheme spirals toward its reckoning with the law. Originally published in 1948, "The Hat Box Murders" is a portrait of vanity and obsession that transforms a world of glamour into something sinister and tragic.

Mike Kowalski trades his dreary Pennsylvania mining town for the glittering world of a gigolo, where he discovers that romancing wealthy older women and inheriting their fortunes beats honest work—at least until his murderous scheme finally catches up with him. Written and illustrated by Louis Dresser, "The Pennsylvania Bluebeard" traces a con man's ruthless climb through a string of doomed marriages and the justice that pursues him.