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 predecessor's death and take on the badge. Now, after years of wearing the silver star, Pat is too old to continue to risk his neck. He only has a few hours before a new sheriff takes over—but a lot of blood can flow in a short amount of time. A well-dressed con artist steps off the stagecoach into the sheriff's office. Mistaking Pat for the replacement officer, he hints at an evil bargain between sheriff and thief—a scheme of murderous corruption that could destroy Pat's closest friend. Pat has just a few hours to stop the killers, and he'll do it with or without his badge.

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 thing with a thousand gentleman callers, but none were as debonair as Arlene's brother, Jack Bristow. Since she started working for Shayne, Lucy hasn't had any time for beaus, and she hasn't thought of Bristow in years—not until the day he shows up on her Miami doorstep begging for help. He collapses, blood seeping from a wound in his chest, and Lucy helps him to the bedroom, knowing that he's minutes from death. The police are chasing Bristow for a murder Lucy's sure he didn't commit, and by the time Shayne gets the cops off their backs, Bristow has escaped through a window. Shayne must track down the bleeding man in order to learn what really happened—for both the sake of an old friend and the...