Author Information
Brett Halliday's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    83 Books (1 Series)
  • First Book:
    August 1970
  • Latest Book:
    October 2017
  • Author Rating:
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Full Series List in Order

A Mike Shayne Mystery

1 - Dividend on Death (Jun-2015)
2 - The Private Practice of Michael Shayne (Jun-2015)
3 - The Uncomplaining Corpses (Aug-2011)
4 - Tickets for Death (Jun-2015)
5 - Bodies Are Where You Find Them (Aug-1989)
6 - The Corpse Came Calling (Jun-2015)
7 - Murder Wears a Mummer's Mask (Jun-2015)
8 - Heads You Lose (Jun-2015)
9 - Michael Shayne's Long Chance (Jun-2015)
10 - Murder and the Married Virgin (Jun-2015)
12 - Marked for Murder (Jul-2015)
13 - Blood on Biscayne Bay (Jul-2015)
14 - Counterfeit Wife (Jul-2015)
15 - Blood on the Stars (Jul-2015)
16 - A Taste for Violence (Jul-2015)
17 - Call for Michael Shayne (Jul-2015)
18 - This Is It, Michael Shayne (Jul-2015)
19 - Framed in Blood (Jul-2015)
20 - What Really Happened (Jul-2015)
21 - When Dorinda Dances (Jul-2015)
22 - One Night with Nora (Aug-2015)
23 - She Woke to Darkness (Aug-2015)
24 - Death Has Three Lives (Aug-2015)
25 - Stranger in Town (Aug-2015)
26 - The Blonde Cried Murder (Aug-2015)
27 - Weep for a Blonde (Aug-2015)
28 - Shoot the Works (Aug-2015)
29 - Murder and the Wanton Bride (Aug-2015)
30 - Fit to Kill (Jan-1989)
31 - Date with a Dead Man (Aug-2015)
32 - Target: Mike Shayne (Sep-2015)
33 - Die Like a Dog (Feb-1989)
34 - Murder Takes No Holiday (Sep-2015)
36 - The Homicidal Virgin (Sep-2015)
37 - Killers from the Keys (Sep-2015)
38 - Murder in Haste (Sep-2015)
39 - The Careless Corpse (Sep-2015)
40 - Pay-Off in Blood (Sep-2015)
41 - Murder by Proxy (Sep-2015)
42 - Never Kill a Client (Sep-2015)
45 - Too Friendly, Too Dead (Oct-2015)
46 - The Corpse That Never Was (Oct-2015)
47 - The Body Came Back (Oct-2015)
48 - A Redhead for Mike Shayne (Oct-2015)
50 - Mike Shayne's 50th Case (Oct-2015)

Book List in Order: 83 titles



  • MURDER DERBY It started when a hot tip on a sure winner turned a born loser into a cold corpse. By the time Mike Shayne got into the act, a fast killer was out to lead the pack of victims all the way to the finish line. Mike knew the odds were ...





  • A friend’s disappearance sends Mike Shayne to the Caribbean Timothy Rourke made his name as a Miami crime reporter, but he never knew true evil until he came to the Caribbean. In a corrupt tropical country, where beatings and murders pass for ordin...



  • Mike Shayne goes grave robbing in a pet cemetery to solve the case of a millionaire’s murder It’s 11:00 am, and Mike Shayne has just poured himself a cognac, when Henrietta Rogell strolls into his office. Normally, Shayne would extend no special ...




  • MURDER AT THE RIO GRANDE

    Ten years ago, private eye Mike Shayne did a job for one of the richest men in El Paso, digging up dirt on a boy courting the tycoon’s daughter. Now the daughter’s back, all grown up and dangerous. And so’s Shay...



  • A disappearing corpse draws Miami PI Mike Shayne into a deadly political conspiracy in this hardboiled mystery that inspired the film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. A year after marrying the toughest PI in Miami, Phyllis Shayne longs for a few weeks alone wit...



  • Mike Shayne investigates the connection between a flirtatious wife, a husband blinded by jealousy, and a murdered boss Just 3 years ago, Ralph Larson and his wife were newlyweds, the happiest young couple in Miami. But since Larson went to work for W...



  • The honeymoon is over -- and it’s time for Mike Shayne to prepare for Miami’s killing season For years, Mike Shayne has tangled with the toughest crooks the country has to offer, outsmarting some and outpunching the rest. He was good at his job, ...






  • Street & Smith’s Detective Story, January 1943DEATH GOES TO THE POSTby Davis Dresseras Brett HallidayMichael Shayne lays down a bet at Hialeah -- and so manages to make a losing ticket pay off on a corpse.One of the most successful of all fictional...



  • Mammoth Detective, August 1945DON’T FENCE ME OUTA Michael Shayne Mysteryby Davis Dresseras Brett HallidayNobody could figure why Moore refused to halt at a sentry’s command when it meant death to go on. To learn why a civilian was shot down by an...



  • PERIL PRESS presents:Detective Fiction Weekly, Oct 31 1936Saint Detective Magazine, Dec 1954WOMEN ARE POISONby Davis Dressleras by Brett Halliday (1954 publication)as by Davis Dressler (1936 publication)The Kid had the instincts of a cobra. But his v...



  • Mike Shayne is accused of homicide after a dying man stumbles into his office When an old friend calls begging to see him immediately, Mike Shayne is surprised to say the least. He hasn’t set eyes on Jim Lacy in ten years, and time has not been kin...



  • A mentally ill woman is accused of killing her mother in this classic Mike Shayne novel from the legendary detective author. Mike Shayne has just poured himself a drink when Phyllis Brighton tries to throw herself out the window of his downtown apart...



  • After hearing a murder over the phone, Mike Shayne searches for the killer Woken by the telephone, Mike Shayne is disoriented. Though he has been alone since his wife was murdered, he has not gotten used to sleeping by himself. The voice on the other...



  • A search for a missing girl takes grief-stricken Mike Shayne to New Orleans It was a knife that brought Mike and Phyllis Shayne together -- the murder weapon that Mike had to prove Phyllis did not bury in her mother’s back. But years after they met...



  • 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 ...



  • A private investigator’s Colorado vacation is cut short by gold miner’s murder in this classic Mike Shayne novel. Private inspector Mike Shayne and his young bride, Phyllis, have escaped Miami for a badly needed vacation, taking in a theatre fest...



  • The day he met Phyllis Brighton, Mike Shayne saved her from jumping out a window -- and he has been rescuing her ever since. First he helped her beat a murder rap; now he's trying to pry her away from the sleaziest lawyer in Dade County: Harry Grange...






  • Mike Shayne receives a tip off from a desperate drunk concerning corruption at the racetrack Marriage hasn’t stopped Mike Shayne’s phone from ringing. Every night it seems there’s some troubled dame calling up with a problem that only Miami’s...



  • Mike Shayne tangles with a Miami Beach blackmailer on behalf of a long-forgotten friend   It’s been four years since his wife was murdered, and Mike Shayne isn’t keen to remember the old days. He’s back in Miami when he sees Christine, onc...



  • 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 fo...



  • Mike Shayne investigates a murder committed by an amnesiac Arthur Devlin wakes up so hungover that for a moment, he thinks the ship is sinking. As he gets his bearings, he realizes the only storm is inside his own head -- and he isn’t on a ship at ...



  • 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 t...



  • When a blackmail scheme goes wrong, Mike Shayne is left to pick up the pieces   Bert Jackson could have been a great reporter, if he had the patience for it. Married to a woman with expensive taste, Jackson has spent himself into the kind of deb...



  • When a crime wave grips Miami, Mike Shayne comes home to fight In the city room of the Courier, a reporter blocks out the clatter of typewriters to tell Miami the truth. In the past week, three murders have been committed in Miami Beach, and Tim...



  • In a mining town, Mike Shayne finds that buried secrets can be deadly The miners are striking in Centerville, Kentucky, and the town is about to explode. Three men have been killed in the past week, and Charles Roche fears he will be next. Heir to th...



  • A reporter anticipates her own death, and Mike Shayne hunts the killer   Sara Morton is one of the toughest reporters in Miami. She made a name for herself in the twenties when she lied her way into Al Capone’s mob to get an exclusive, and she...



  • A mysterious woman draws Mike Shayne into a twisted murder plot The call comes just as Mike Shayne is pouring a much-needed cognac. A gangster’s voice warns, “Stay away from Wanda Weatherby.” Simple enough -- except that Shayne has never heard ...






  • To save a judge’s daughter, Mike Shayne must invade the red-light district   For twenty years, Judge Nigel Lansdowne has been one of Washington’s greatest progressives. The red-baiters in Congress would do anything to destroy his reputation,...



  • Mike Shayne has 2 hours to solve a murder -- or else watch his lover die It’s 2 hours before midnight when the woman in room 360 calls the front desk to report a murder. The house detective sprints upstairs, but finds room 360 totally empty: no kil...



  • A strange disappearance leads Mike Shayne to investigate a death on the open sea Mike Shayne is savoring a nightcap when his secretary calls in a panic. Lucy Hamilton doesn’t scare easily and as soon as Shayne hears her voice, he knows this must be...



  • Mike Shayne leaps into danger after a fugitive collapses on his secretary’s floor Before she met Mike Shayne, Lucy Hamilton was just another young woman living in New Orleans. She shared an apartment with her best friend, Arlene, a vivacious young ...



  • A beachside slaying threatens to put Mike Shayne behind bars No one at the hotel gives a damn about Walter Carson. There aren’t any letters for him at the front desk or calls at reception. Bellboys, waiters, and bartenders all ignore him. When he r...



  • A naked intruder leads Mike Shayne to one of the strangest cases of his career Mike Shayne is never surprised to wake up with a woman in his bedroom -- unless she’s a stranger. The private investigator is dozing when he hears someone creep through ...



  • A pulp writer tumbles into a mystery after an encounter at an awards banquet For more than a decade, Brett Halliday has made a living chronicling the adventures of the hard-nosed private detective Mike Shayne. At the banquet for the 1953 Edgar Awards...



  • Mike Shayne investigates the case of a murdered husband and a high-stakes embezzlement plot Mike Shayne finds the dead man in the bedroom. The corpse sports a bowtie, polished black shoes, and a tidy little hole right between his eyes. His name is Ja...



  • In a strange town, Mike Shayne meets a deadly damsel in distress Mike Shayne is 3 hours from Miami when the sun dips below the horizon and he decides to make a pit stop. For Shayne, that means cognac, and the only bar in town is a lonely little dive ...



  • A blonde with a rotten husband sends Mike Shayne into the past Mike Shayne isn’t scared of anyone, but that doesn’t mean he feels comfortable in a tuxedo. He squeezes into the monkey suit for the sake of Lucy Hamilton, his beloved secretary, and ...






  • Mike Shayne battles blackmailers to recover a valuable missing bracelet The picture in the paper shows one of the most beautiful women in Miami wearing nothing more than a negligee. She’s in her boudoir, posing for police photographers, pointing to...



  • 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 ca...



  • Mike Shayne takes a dip in the deadly Florida Keys for a dancer named Sloe Burn He smells her perfume before he walks through the door. It’s called Black Sin, and the woman wearing it certainly lives up to the name. Esther Piney, better known as Sl...



  • A beautiful woman vanishes while on vacation in Miami, and it’s up to Mike Shayne to find her When Ellen Harris leaves New York for her 2-week trip to Miami, her husband playfully reminds her to be careful. In a city famous for playboys, loan shark...



  • Mike Shayne has 24 hours to find out the truth and save a man from death row 3 years ago, Miami Chief of Detectives Peter Painter made the greatest arrest of his career -- one that led to Sam Harris being put on death row for killing Rose Heminway’...



  • Mike Shayne tackles a smuggling ring while on a Caribbean vacation A car speeds toward the embankment with one of the most ruthless heroin dealers in the country behind the wheel. Beside him is the legendary detective Mike Shayne, who will take contr...



  • Mike Shayne finds himself caught up in a strange conspiracy when he’s invited to Los Angeles by a terrified woman It’s the end of summer and Miami is as quiet as the grave. To Mike Shayne, the city’s most notorious private detective, it seems a...



  • 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 worki...



  • 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 h...



  • A teenage girl and her wicked stepmother battle to the death in this pulp fiction classic from the legendary author of the Mike Shayne Mysteries.   Ever since her father wrote to say he had married a woman named Florence, April Haddon has nursed...






  • From the author of the Mike Shayne Mysteries: A man’s obsessive affair with his wife’s teenage sister takes him down a dark and dangerous path.   A quiet construction engineer in Denver, Colorado, Charlie Dell doesn’t need any complication...



  • When an author finds his friend murdered, he calls on hardboiled cop Jerry Burke to track down the killer In a lonely canyon high above El Paso, a ruthless millionaire and a hardline socialist live side by side. Raymond Dwight makes money mercilessly...



  • In this classic crime novel from the creator of Mike Shayne, a writer and an El Paso cop chase a serial killer who taunts them with ads in the local paper.   Action Western novelist Asa Baker is in bad need of a good story when he gets a call fr...



  • A call from a killer sends Mike Shayne hurtling toward the brink A woman sits in the Encanto Hotel on Biscayne Bay, rationing a bottle of scotch and waiting for a call that could change her life. She clutches a marriage announcement that has chilled ...



  • Mike Shayne finds strange secrets hidden beneath the cover of a grisly double suicide It’s 10:30 pm, and Mike Shayne is sipping cognac, ruminating on the perfection of Lucy Hamilton’s fried chicken, when a shotgun fires upstairs. Following the ac...



  • 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 ...



  • A warehouse robbery pulls Mike Shayne into a daring international conspiracy It’s been years since Mike Shayne last subjected himself to a stakeout. Miami’s most infamous private detective simply doesn’t have time to waste sitting in a car, dri...



  • An ordinary chump has been murdered -- and Mike Shayne has 36 hours to find the killer When Linda Fitzgilpin is woken by the sound of the ringing telephone, she finds her husband is missing. For years now, Jerome has always slept in his bed across th...



  • In a formerly peaceful western valley, a sheriff and his friends battle a corrupt land speculator Pat, Sam, and Ezra came to Powder Valley together, to tame the West and find a place to settle down. Soon, Pat is the sheriff, and Sam is married, but b...



  • When two prize cattle are slain, the sheriff of Powder Valley is called to a freezing, violent town It’s bitterly cold in the Rockies when the locomotive reaches the end of the line. Only one passenger alights from the caboose: Nate Morris, a lean ...



  • For the sake of cheated settlers, Sheriff Pat Stevens takes on a Powder Valley conman On a weather-beaten stretch of the Kansas prairie, a family fights to survive. Molly Hartsell is only twenty-seven, but years of barely scraping by have made her ol...



  • To save his wife’s closest friend, Sheriff Pat Stevens -- with the help of his trusty friends Sam and Ezra -- pursues a gang of masked gunmen Sheriff Pat Stevens should be the happiest man in Powder Valley. He has a thriving ranch, a healthy son, a...



  • An all-star gang of villains descends on peaceful Powder Valley On a tawdry street in the heart of Denver, men crowd into the saloon for two reasons: cheap whiskey and Connie Dawson. The loveliest singer in Colorado, Connie has a golden voice and a b...



  • A young woman heads west to Powder Valley in search of her father -- but finds trouble instead William Wilcox could never stand his life in Philadelphia. He adored his wife and their daughter, Joan, but the city strangled him. So he fled west, establ...



  • To save the Pony Express, Sheriff Pat Stevens and his sidekick Sam Sloan must ride faster than ever before In a barren stretch of southern Colorado, a small shack links Powder Valley to the rest of the world. Every other day, Sam Sloan comes thunderi...



  • Hours before his retirement, Powder Valley’s chief lawman stumbles upon a deadly scheme Pat Stevens never wanted to be sheriff. But when old Ed Grimes was killed, Pat was the only man in Powder Valley with a quick enough gun hand to avenge his pred...



  • A retired Colorado sheriff rides south to the Mexican border to save a naïve young man Ben Thurston is only twenty, and his years in college have taught him little of the real world, yet he believes he’s ready for anything. His whole life, he’s ...



  • On the trail to New Mexico, Pat Stevens and his friends Sam and Ezra risk their lives to fulfill a dying man’s last wish Two men ride across the desert. One is young, nearly mad with thirst and fear. The other is stalwart -- a blue-eyed legend who ...



  • The Rio Kid saves a young boy’s life in this thrilling tale of the Wild West After three years in exile in Mexico, the Rio Kid slipped back into the United States, evading the clutches of a Texas Ranger, a crooked rancher, and a gang of desperadoes...



  • On the road to easy living, Twister and Chuckaluck ride straight into a heapin’ mess of mystery and intrigue Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson can’t catch a break. These two wisecracking friends -- the first lean and clever, the second stout...



  • Ten years after taking vengeance on his tormentor, a wanted man returns home The outlaws of West Texas know every twist and turn of the renegade trail. Carved into the rugged landscape of the Big Bend region by the hoofs of galloping horses bearing d...



  • Two easygoing gunslingers take on a gang of vigilantes to save a quiet Texas ranch town Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson have no love for the sun-blasted plains of West Texas. They made their names in the cool mountain air of Colorado, and are ...



  • A jaded journalist plunges into an intoxicating world of beautiful women and glamorous gambling dens in this captivating tale from the creator of the Mike Shayne Mysteries Tabloid reporter Ed Barlow is in Miami on the assignment of a lifetime. A New ...



  • Twister and Chuckaluck spring into action to keep an elderly widow from being run off her land Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson are making their way through a West Texas canyon when they smell death. It pollutes every inch of the winding, narro...



  • An innocent young woman is seduced by the temptations of Bourbon Street in this sultry, scintillating tale Twenty-two-year-old Barbara Dorn has always been sure of herself. Sure of her happiness in rural Tancipahoa Parish, Louisiana, where she was bo...



  • In a dry patch of West Texas, Twister and Chuckaluck go to war for water At first, Twister Malone and Chuckaluck Thompson think it must be a mirage. If real, the willow trees they see on the horizon mean that water is nearby, and in this dusty stretc...



  • An outlaw gunslinger begins the journey home to clear his name A lone rider stops at the border, preparing to return to the United States for the first time in three years. When he left for Mexico, the Rio Kid was eighteen, a terrified youngster flee...



  • In a cutthroat border town, the Rio Kid must fight or die After being run out of Arizona on a trumped-up murder charge, the Rio Kid spent three years in Mexico, learning how to shoot quicker than any man on the range. Now he’s headed home to clear ...



  • Three years after he was run out of town, the Rio Kid returns home to find a community in desperate need of his gunslinging skills Three years ago, the sheriff of Chapparell, Arizona, was shot dead. Eighteen-year-old Hugh Aiken was falsely accused of...



  • A timid librarian finds passion, romance, and mystery on the trip of a lifetime On the eve of her thirtieth birthday, Vergie Whidby feels unwanted and unloved. She has no romantic prospects on the horizon, yet her body and soul cry out for life, love...



  • A MYSTERY HOUSE RELEASE: Two Mike Shayne stories-- MURDER PLAYS CHARADES Magicians who perform startling feats do not as a rule wind up murdered. But Mike had some grave and dangerous misgivings on that score. The red-headed detective should neve...



  • A MYSTERY HOUSE REPRINT: Jasper Groat was a tidy man with a tidy conscience. This very passion for neatness -- he had seen fit to record all the harrowing details of the torpedoing of the S.S. Okeechobee and his subsequent experiences on a life raft ...



  • A double shot of iconic Miami PI Mike Shayne -- “one of the best of the tough sleuths” (The New York Times).  Dead Man’s Diary: Florida private investigator Mike Shayne’s in New Orleans at the behest of a distraught wife whose war-hero h...



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    A MYSTERY HOUSE RELEASE: Two Mike Shayne stories-- MURDER PLAYS CHARADES Magicians who perform startling feats do not as a rule wind up murdered. But Mike had some grave and dangerous misgivings on that score. The red-headed detective should never ha...


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Brett Halliday has published 83 books.

Brett Halliday does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, Dead Man's Diary and A Taste for Cognac, was published in October 2017.

The first book by Brett Halliday, Nice Fillies Finish Last, was published in August 1970.

Yes. Brett Halliday has 1 series.