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Armchair Fiction presents extra large editions of classic mystery-crime double novels. This double novel’s first tale is “Three for the Money” by whodunit specialist Joe Barry. Little Sammy Burns, small time private dick, had something hot, something big—in fact, it was too big for Sammy. He died at the airport, a knife in his back. Bill August, retained by the airline to investigate the murder, almost lost his life trying, after which he learned a few things: Vikki Kane, whose anatomical charms produced record high blood pressures in the opposite sex, had a theatrical career and a millionaire fiancé to consider—and wanted silence. Aristocratic Paul Daymon had several million dollars and wanted Vikki—with silence. Andrea Parrish, whose blood was probably blue because it never rose above 30 degrees Fahrenheit, wanted back what she had lost, namely Daymon’s millions—and silence, too. In short, nobody wanted publicity and nobody wanted to talk. Bill realized that if he pressured all concerned, before long someone was going to crack. But with a gun blasting at him, he soon made a few mental notes: women are never a known quantity, blackmail can be practiced in more ways than one—and so can murder! The second tale in this double novel is mystery specialist Robert Martin’s fast-moving thriller, “Nothing but Trouble.” What a dinner party it was; what a cacophony of laughter, charades, dancing, and boozed up catcalls that could be heard blocks away. But beneath the mesmerizing crystal chandeliers, silver cutlery, evening gowns, and double-breasted coats, were fake smiles, promiscuous women, hidden agendas, and men in debt up to their eyeballs. The scene was all set for a lovely murder. Enter Jim Bennett, PI. He should have known that Charles “Hot Shot” Rudolph McKennah’s dinner party wasn’t going to end well. Bennett always got dragged into cases whether he liked it or not, it was just the nature of his job—and McKennah was an old friend who was getting death threats in the mail! So as Bennett worked the party he found there were plenty of people who had motive to want McKennah dead: his ex-wife, his current wife’s ex-fiancé who worked for him, the boyfriend of his ex-wife…it could have been anyone. So it was up to Bennett to find out who, before McKennah ended up in a body bag on his was merry way to the morgue.
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