Brett Halliday Books in Order

Pat Stevens, Sam, and Ezra take to the high country where rimrock gives gunmen the advantage. To get out alive, they have to beat opponents who know every ledge and choke point.

A supposedly simple death refuses to stay simple once Michael Shayne starts asking questions. Carelessness may explain the scene, but it does not explain the murder.

What starts as a wolf hunt turns into trouble on two legs when Ezra's bad luck puts more than pride at risk. Pat Stevens and Sam ride with him into a harsh fight where the trail is full of predators.

A run through rough canyon country turns into a fight for survival when Pat Stevens and his friends ride into an ambush. The narrow ground leaves little room for mistakes and even less for mercy.

What looks like distance from the crime turns out to be part of the design in this Mike Shayne case. He has to work past decoys, hired hands, and people who think murder is safer when done through somebody else.

The first rule in the title gets broken, and Mike Shayne is left to untangle the consequences. Clients, enemies, and supposed allies all start looking equally dangerous.

A desperate doctor hires Mike Shayne for a case that starts with blackmail and ends with murder. The payoff everyone wants is real enough, but somebody plans to collect it in blood.

A ransom plot brings fear and suspicion to Powder Valley, and Pat Stevens has little time to sort friend from enemy. The closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous the exchange becomes.

Pat Stevens, Sam, and Ezra help push a vulnerable herd through country controlled by gunmen. The cattle drive becomes a running battle against sabotage, intimidation, and open attack.

A woman asking for help pulls Mike Shayne into a case of murder and misplaced trust. The friendly faces are the problem here, because the people acting safest may be the ones setting the trap.

When law and outlaw business start to look like the same thing, Pat Stevens rides into a town with a poisoned badge. To put things right, he and his partners have to expose the men using the law as cover.

A desperate escape sets Powder Valley on edge and drags Pat Stevens, Sam, and Ezra into a fast-moving hunt. Every mile adds new enemies, shifting loyalties, and the threat of a bloody finish.

A phone call from a killer kicks off one of Michael Shayne's nastier cases. Just when the evidence seems settled, the dead refuse to stay neatly in the past.

A shotgun blast sends Mike Shayne upstairs to what looks like a grim double suicide. A powerful father refuses to accept the scene at face value, and Shayne soon finds good reason to agree.

Pat Stevens, Sam, and Ezra drive a herd through Panhandle horse-thief country and into the toughest town in Texas. A rigged stampede, an arrest, and an outlaw named Lasher make the trail harder than expected.

While covering a warehouse during a storm, Mike Shayne stumbles into a robbery that opens onto something far bigger. What begins as routine guard work turns into a chase through Miami for professionals playing a deeper game.

A powerful rustling operation has grown big enough to act like its own kingdom. Pat Stevens knows that bringing down an empire on the range can be harder than facing one outlaw.

Michael Shayne steps into a case where someone is not bluffing and the danger is immediate. He has to outmaneuver people who prefer bullets to explanations.

Silvermine is rich enough to start a feud and dangerous enough to keep it going. Pat Stevens rides into a mining-country clash where greed, pride, and gun smoke all feed the fire.

Tim Rourke drags Mike Shayne into a harness-racing gambling scheme that starts with a dead tipster and only gets worse. With Rourke laid up, Shayne has to sort crooked money, bad odds, and lethal double-crosses.

The title is honest. Mike Shayne faces a case where every answer seems to come with a gun attached, and he has to navigate frightened witnesses, hard men, and sudden force.

An impossible-looking death and a room full of uneasy witnesses give Mike Shayne the kind of case he cannot ignore. The setup looks neat on the surface, but the truth turns out meaner and messier.

A bookie, a fixed football game, and a big robbery send Mike Shayne into Miami's gambling underworld. The closer he gets to the winners, the more obvious it becomes that somebody plans to cash out in blood.

Everybody looks compromised in this Mike Shayne case, and more than one suspect has good reason to panic. Shayne pushes through guilt, bluff, and half-truths to find the one person who cannot afford daylight.

A glamorous setup lures Mike Shayne into a case that mixes beauty with menace. Behind the seaside sheen lies the usual Halliday mix of deception, danger, and sudden violence.

Michael Shayne is drawn toward a case where attraction, money, and danger keep circling the same people. The lush surface does not last long before murder tears it open.

Called to Tallahassee to testify against legalized gambling, Mike Shayne walks straight into bribery, blackmail, and political violence. Everybody has money at stake, and several people are willing to kill over it.

A football owner hires Mike Shayne to find out whether an offensive tackle was paid to miss key blocks that left a quarterback in a coma. Betting money, blackmail, and murder soon spread from the locker room to Miami's underworld.

A case built on speed, timing, and violent intent gives Mike Shayne almost no margin for error. In six seconds, a bluff can fail, a witness can vanish, and a murder can happen.

A ticking-clock plot pulls Mike Shayne into a high-pressure case where every move feels like part of a countdown. The threat keeps narrowing until there is almost no room left for mistakes.

The title promise is blunt, and so is the danger facing Michael Shayne in this late-series thriller. He is up against a killer who wants him frightened, off balance, and very much dead.

Michael Shayne lands in a case where the victim's death is only the beginning of the trouble. The deeper he digs, the more he finds people who are already rehearsing their alibis.

A dying man stumbles into Mike Shayne's office and leaves him looking like the next suspect. To clear himself and avenge an old friend, Shayne has to follow the shooting back through lies and double-crosses.

A violent case tied to the movie business sends Michael Shayne into a world of fading glamour and ugly secrets. As pressure builds around an actress and a powerful studio figure, scandal turns lethal.

With a gun doing the talking, Michael Shayne is shoved into a case that offers little time and no clean choices. He has to think fast, because somebody is using brute force to cover something worse.

A missing graduate student, last seen leaving the scene of a theft, pulls Michael Shayne into a hunt that starts on the road and ends in deeper trouble. The case mixes missing-person tension with art, crime, and murder.

A high-stakes gambling case pulls Michael Shayne into the sort of racket where everybody wants a cut and nobody plays straight. Big money, bad bets, and hard timing make this one especially dangerous.

Mike Shayne has to tell the honest players from the cheats in a case where every gain comes with a hidden cost. What looks like routine hustle soon turns into a knot of betrayal and murder.

After years in exile, Hugh Aiken rides back to Chapparell, Arizona as the hardened Rio Kid. He means to clear his name, but first he has to face the killer who stole his past and the gunmen now ruling his hometown.

After her father's death, April Haddon returns home expecting to hate her stepmother, Florence, and soon suspects murder. Told through April's diary-like account, this is tight domestic suspense with a sharp psychological edge.

This standalone leans away from straight mystery and into volatile personal drama. Desire, memory, and bad choices gather around Charlie Dell, building a tense story about people who cannot stop wounding each other.

A dangerous woman, fast money, and sudden violence pull this hardboiled thriller into darker territory. It is a lean noir setup where attraction and danger arrive together.

Morgan Wayne wages a one-man war on crime lords, dope dealers, and vice bosses the law cannot touch. To bring them down, he has to walk straight into the heart of gangland.

When novelist Asa Baker finds his friend murdered in a canyon above El Paso, he calls in hardboiled lawman Jerry Burke. The case opens onto money, class tension, and cold-blooded deceit on both sides of the border.