An idea develops which involves a bridge, until the boiling point is finally reached! Kelly never knew exactly when it was that he decided to kill her. Thinking it over afterwards, he realized that murder is something like a pot boiling over. The fire is underneath for a long time and nothing happens, and then all at once the heat reaches a certain point and there it blows and you look back in horror to find that you've killed someone...

It was past midnight when Jerry Coonan left the cocktail bar with a tall blond in a mink coat. On the way out he gave the high sign to Red Stafford and Shorty Burton sitting idly at the bar waiting for the tip off and as he guided her out the front door, he could see them get off their stools and prepare to leave. Jerry chuckled softly to himself, the blond was dumb and rich. The diamond pendant around her neck ought to bring $10,000 at least and...

The woman's husband is disappointed enough to get a whistleresque idea while atop a mule going down the Grand Canyon! Steve was in his glory. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever believed a thing like this could come to pass. Here they were, just the two of them at Carol Crandall’s special table at the Top of The Mark in San Francisco. Through the huge plate glass window he could see the shining city stretching away to the east. Everything sparkled...

Visiting hours were over and the Jeffrey Long museum in San Francisco was quiet. In the private office of the owner Jeffrey sat at his desk staring at the note in his hand; a note that was damp with his own perspiration. The hands trembled, as there was a tight nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, symptoms of terror. It had all started three months ago when Jeffrey Long had received the first envelope when in Cairo. Then followed days and weeks...

The setting for murder can be anywhere. Perhaps it seems more at home in a dark alley or on an isolated dark road or yet in the dingy backroom of a cheap honky-tonk. But once murder is in the mind of someone and the dark plan evolved, the setting can be anywhere. It can even take place in a well lighted, well appointed apartment in the expensive part of the city where laughter is mixed with the pleasant talk of four people.

In The Whistler, Lacy Stoltz investigated a corrupt judge who was taking millions in bribes from a crime syndicate. She put the criminals away, but only after being attacked and nearly killed. Three years later and approaching 40, she is tired of her work for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct and ready for a change. Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby's father was murdered 20 years earlier,...