Robert J Randisi Books in Order

Gun-for-hire Targett arrives in Dodge City expecting to visit Bat Masterson, but finds a new sheriff enforcing a gun ban. A saloon keeper's murder scheme forces Targett to choose sides while protecting his own life.

Racing Commission investigator Henry Po searches for the missing daughter of a Staten Island racetrack owner. A business feud and threats against a jockey draw him toward possible race fixing, with clues pointing beyond a simple disappearance.

Boxer Miles Jacoby is considering a career as a private investigator when his detective mentor is murdered. His brother faces the charge, and Miles's feelings for his sister-in-law make the search for answers painfully personal.

Tracker enters San Francisco's Chinatown to recover a senator's gambling debts before they fall into dangerous hands. The White Pigeon Tong stands in his way, turning a lucrative assignment into a fight to escape a powerful gang.

Tracker pursues a thief and twenty thousand stolen dollars into Lincoln County. Encountering Pat Garrett's campaign against Billy the Kid complicates the recovery job, drawing Tracker into local gunfights and responsibilities he never intended to take.

Private investigator Miles Jacoby is hired to recover a stolen collection of pulp magazines in New York. What begins as a search for valuable reading material draws him into trouble with mobsters and an elusive killer.

A poker game leaves Tracker owning an expensive San Francisco hotel. He travels there with con man Duke Farrell, only to find that inspecting his winnings involves boxing matches, gunfights, and more city trouble than he expected.

Private investigator Miles Jacoby searches for a wealthy businessman's missing daughter while trying to clear a friend's name in a murder case. Karate experts and adult filmmakers complicate his investigations into the darker corners of New York.

Liz Archer protects Wyoming ranchers from a banker determined to seize their land. Her attraction to widower Andrew Carter deepens her involvement, while hired gunfighter Griff Taylor threatens the families Liz has stepped in to defend.

After the Nolan clan murders her fiancé and family, Liz Archer turns to Tate Gilmore for help. Learning to handle a gun gives her a way to pursue revenge, but confronting the killers means risking her own life.

Former sheriff Bat Masterson now works as a New York sportswriter. When a fellow reporter disappears, he teams up with young Damon Runyon to investigate, uncovering a dangerous mix of crooked politicians, hired muscle, and concealed secrets.

Mantaka grows up in the Colorado Rockies after violence destroys his family. As prospectors and settlers enter the mountains, criminals frame him for murder, forcing a man caught between cultures to flee enemies both old and new.

A Montana rancher threatens to expose Liz Archer's identity unless she hunts a dangerous wolf. Teaming with a professional hunter brings another complication: rival hunters willing to kill more than their quarry to claim the prize.

Andrew Ryder heads west after the Civil War destroys his Georgia home and leaves his fiancée dead. When outlaws murder a buffalo hunter who befriends him, Ryder joins the man's sister in pursuing the killers.

Ryder approaches an isolated farmhouse seeking a fresh horse and shelter for the night. Instead, gunfire greets him, and he finds three desperate women fighting to keep what belongs to them against threats to their property.

Brooklyn private investigator Nick Delvecchio searches for a small statue pawned by Jodi Hayworth. A murdered pawnbroker and mob interest reveal that the object matters more than it seems, leaving Nick and Jodi facing increasingly dangerous pursuers.

Wounded Chicago detective Miles Paladon wakes to find an arrow where a bullet should be. Transported from the 1930s into a land of knights and magic, he must make sense of a world far beyond his experience.

Armed men capture Ryder in Mexico, then spare him when they discover his Confederate military service. They demand he train them to overthrow the government, making his survival depend on an army he never intended to lead.

Ryder becomes a deputy in Caldwell, Kansas, when an unknown gunman called the Reaper threatens a local resident. Keeping the peace proves difficult as Ryder investigates the old grievance bringing a feared killer toward town.

Ryder accepts a well-paid bodyguard job for Edward Egan, but his employer disappears and is found shot. Accused of murder, Ryder hides in Chinatown while searching for the real killer and a way to clear himself.

Trapper Jack Pike clashes with an old enemy at the annual mountain men’s rendezvous. When that enemy is found stabbed, suspicion falls on Pike, forcing him to find the real murderer before the gathering turns against him.

A coup installs a ruthless general in a Central American country. Nile Barrabas and his mercenaries must train villagers into a fighting force and restore the displaced leadership while facing the new president's elite death squad.

A shooting leaves Oklahoma marshal Kyle Maddux wounded and out of work. Investigating the attack himself, he discovers similar backshootings in Texas and follows the trail, determined to bring the hidden gunman to justice.

Jack Pike joins Kit Carson on a hunting trip south of the Arkansas River. Taking an abandoned Comanche woman into their party complicates the journey, as hostile warriors and a dangerous wolf threaten the hunters' return.

Jack Pike and Skins McConnell leave Jim Bridger's mountain party for the wilderness, where Crow captors seize Pike. They intend to use him to lure Bridger into a trap, leaving Pike fighting for his freedom and his friend's safety.

Troubled by vivid nightmares, Jack Pike leaves town for a winter buffalo hunt with widow Liz Wilkes. In the snowy Rockies, a grizzly and hostile Blackfoot warriors turn his fears into immediate threats to their survival.

Jack Pike hears that thieves near Bonneville plan to steal horses from the Snake people. Fearing retaliation against the whole settlement, he takes on the rustlers himself before a few men's crimes provoke wider bloodshed.

Private investigator Miles Jacoby searches for a woman who could provide a mobster's alibi while examining a fellow detective's murder. The widow doubts the official explanation, drawing Jacoby into secrets that make both investigations increasingly dangerous.

Falling fur prices send Jack Pike and Skins McConnell to St. Louis to confront the trading companies. When Skins wakes beside a dead woman and is jailed, Pike must investigate the city's brothels to clear his friend.

Edited by Edward Gorman, Robert J. Randisi, and Martin H. Greenberg for Mystery Scene, this inaugural collection brings together suspense and mystery stories from established genre writers. Dean R. Koontz is represented by “Twilight of the Dawn,” first published in Night Visions IV.

Jack Pike hunts a wolf attacking children and livestock near Fort Halls. A killer named De Roche also wants the animal's bounty, turning Pike's effort to protect the settlement into a contest against both predator and rival hunter.

Rancher Ted Shea needs to drive his cattle from Montana to market, but a violent rustler scares off the hands. Gambler Dan Parmalee accepts the dangerous job, discovering that getting paid requires surviving far more than the trail.

Jack Pike returns from a failed hunt to find his cabin burned and Sun Rising attacked. Pursuing the men responsible brings him across two women seeking revenge of their own, complicating his hunt for justice in the wilderness.

Sam McCall and his brothers return to Texas after their father's suspicious death. Hired gunmen greet them at their former ranch, forcing the brothers to fight for answers about what happened during their twenty-year absence.

Private investigator Nick Delvecchio faces a family crisis when his priest brother is accused of murder and an affair. Clearing Vincent's name means juggling another case and considering help from a Brooklyn mob boss whose favors carry a price.

Jack Pike accepts Ivan Koloff's invitation to hunt grizzlies, encouraged by the Russian's companion Vanya. But the expedition turns sinister when Ivan makes Pike his quarry, forcing the trapper to escape a hunter determined to kill him.

Jack Pike and Skins McConnell lead a group of trappers down the Missouri to sell their furs in St. Joe. River hazards, attacks, and an outlaw ambush threaten the journey, forcing Pike to protect both men and cargo.

Jack Pike and Skins McConnell meet missionaries stranded after their guides rob them. With conflict brewing between Blackfeet and Flathead groups, the partners agree to escort the party through dangerous territory and try to reach safer ground.

Jack Pike and Skins McConnell carry their winter furs toward a trading post when they encounter starving inexperienced trappers. Facing attacks on the camp, Pike must organize its men into a force capable of defending themselves.

Private investigator Miles Jacoby travels from New York to Tampa to find a woman pictured on a postcard. A supposedly simple missing-person assignment draws unwelcome attention from photographers, gym patrons, police, and people determined to stop his inquiries.

Jack Pike joins other trappers and Trish Limpscomb to confront Baptiste Lesage and his hired Canadian gunmen. Their campaign to intimidate competing traders threatens everyone working in the area, drawing Pike into a struggle over the frontier trade.

After twenty-five years imprisoned for avenging his murdered wife, John Henry Trapp returns to the mountains with a young gunfighter. The country has changed, and enemies hoping to claim his gun are waiting to challenge the aging mountain man.

Jack Pike and trail partner Skins McConnell settle near a beaver pond, hoping for rest in the wilderness. Their quiet stay is disrupted by explorers trying to open a route through the Continental Divide and the country around them.

Miles Jacoby investigates a comedian's stolen routine while handling a murder suspect unwilling to identify someone else. When the comic dies and another name could reach the obituaries, Jacoby must untangle two cases that become increasingly dangerous.

A serial killer called the Lover leaves roses with the bodies of young women in New York. A copycat begins imitating him, provoking the original killer and complicating a detective's efforts to understand the escalating murders.

Newly arrived in St. Louis, detective Joe Keough encounters a four-year-old boy leaving bloody footprints at the station. The child's missing parents and a series of mother-and-child kidnappings draw him into disturbing cases before he can settle in.

Private-eye novelists including Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, and Parnell Hall contribute advice on writing detective fiction. Edited by Robert J. Randisi, this handbook brings together experienced writers' approaches for readers working on their own private-investigator stories.

After accidentally killing a little girl during a paid shooting, Lancaster abandons his guns and turns to alcohol. Meeting another child who needs protection offers a chance to help, but defending her could cost him his life.

Detective Dennis McQueen begins connecting murders that initially seemed unrelated, recognizing the work of a careful killer. Convincing his superiors proves difficult as the pattern threatens to reveal information the people in charge would prefer not to confront.

Joe Keough investigates a political aide's murder after the body is displayed near the St. Louis Arch. Taunting messages and further killings suggest a deliberate campaign, forcing him to uncover the meaning behind the killer's public displays.

Young lawman Elfego Baca must defend his reputation as a gunfighter when he faces eighty cowboys in a violent confrontation. Outnumbered and under attack, he draws on his courage and skill to withstand the overwhelming force against him.

In 1888 London, police suspect the star of Bram Stoker's theater production of being Jack the Ripper. With the theater closed and his livelihood threatened, Stoker investigates the murders himself while the killer takes an interest in him.

St. Louis detective Joe Keough investigates murders of pregnant women whose bodies appear along the Mississippi. With an unconventional task force and Internal Affairs officers threatening his career, he must pursue the killer while defending his own work.

Claire Hunt travels to New Orleans for her shopping program and brings husband Gil along. A meeting with a supposed voodoo queen leads to murder, a missing girl, and danger for Gil as Claire searches for him.

Gunfighter John Locke accepts work overseeing Ignacio Delgado's hanging in Lincoln, New Mexico. Facing the condemned man's loyal supporters, Locke begins questioning the sheriff's motives and whether the execution serves justice or a more personal purpose.

Robin Lobianco expects a brief encounter with a married couple, but they ask her to join their lives permanently. When she refuses, their attention becomes stalking, turning an unwanted relationship offer into a threat to her safety.

Joe Keough and Harriet Conners investigate child abductions and stranglings in Chicago and St. Louis. Different victims but similar methods raise the possibility of linked killers, forcing the partners to move quickly before more children disappear.

Lancaster interrupts a lynching in Council Bluffs and saves an innocent man, but a bystander dies in the crossfire. His promise to the dying man makes him responsible for guiding a wagon train of women and children to California.

Texas sheriff Daniel Shaye loses his wife during a bank robbery by Ethan Langer's gang. Leaving Epitaph with his three adult sons, he pursues the killers as grief pulls the family toward a violent reckoning beyond the law.

Mourners gather for Tanner Moody's funeral and recount different episodes from his life as lawman, outlaw, and gunfighter. Stories by nine writers reveal conflicting memories of a man whom those around him loved, feared, admired, or hated.

John Locke rides shotgun on a payroll wagon with his old partner Dale Cooper, expecting danger from outlaws after the cash. Reaching a remote Montana mining camp reveals further threats and a betrayal closer than either man anticipated.

Detective Dennis McQueen investigates bodies killed in different ways but frozen before disposal. A corpse discovered after a fire links his work to fire marshal Mason Willis's arson investigation, forcing the two men to pursue a possible serial killer together.

Gil and Claire Hunt attend a mystery-writers' convention expecting to meet authors rather than investigate a crime. When prominent novelist Robin Everly is found dead in his hotel room, the couple sets out to identify the killer.

John Henry Trapp leaves prison after serving time for killing his wife's murderer and returns to his mountain home. Old enemies await him there, determined that freedom will be brief and that his final destination should be a grave.

Daniel Shaye and his surviving sons try to start again as lawmen in Vengeance Creek. A bank robbery leaves townspeople dead and Shaye wounded, sending his boys after the attackers to seek justice and unravel the violence.

During the filming of Ocean's 11 in Las Vegas, Dean Martin receives threatening letters. Frank Sinatra asks Sands pit boss Eddie Gianelli to identify the sender, pulling him into a mystery involving his famous new acquaintances.

A woman claims her child was fathered by Daniel Shaye's dead son and asks the family for protection. The Shayes travel to Pearl River Junction, where doubts about her story compete with danger from a ruthless gang.

After assassins destroy his wealthy family, Ty Butler survives in the West through gambling and reading people's faces. Arriving in Dodge City places him amid old grudges and new conflicts while the people hunting him remain a threat.

Gambler Ty Butler finds Doc Holliday held by corrupt lawmen in Denver and wanted for murder in Tombstone. He must keep Doc alive until Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson arrive, despite killers eager to force a fatal confrontation.

Frank Sinatra asks Eddie Gianelli to find a woman who vanished from Las Vegas, leaving luggage and a body in a bathtub. With two allies, Eddie searches the city's casinos and back streets while questioning whether she is victim or killer.

Veteran gun-for-hire Faulkner agrees to help a friend pursue the Frank Sunday gang. Their trail leads toward Gunman's Crossing, a town known for violence, where his reluctance to shoot will be tested by the people they seek.

Fresh from prison, poker player Jimmy Spain agrees to mentor wealthy teenager Kat in exchange for tournament backing. When a competitor is murdered and suspicion falls on her, Jimmy must find the killer while staying in the game.

Bounty hunter Decker pursues Brian Foxx, who witnesses place at two bank robberies in different states at exactly the same time. Solving that impossible account becomes essential to catching his quarry and preserving his reputation for success.

Eddie Gianelli agrees to pay a blackmailer for an embarrassing photograph of Sammy Davis Jr., but finds a corpse at the meeting. More bodies and signs of a double cross draw Eddie and Jerry Epstein into a dangerous investigation.

After his family's murder, gambler Ty Butler hides in Fort Worth at Luke Short's gambling hall. When Short is accused of killing a local power broker, Ty recognizes a dangerous connection and risks exposure to help him.

Jimmy Spain and Kat Landrigan head to Niagara Falls for a World Poker Tour event. Between unpredictable players and a murder plot, they must manage their cards while trying to survive trouble away from the tables.

Bounty hunter Decker sets out to capture a crooked sheriff, a man whose badge offers little protection to anyone else. Outlaws follow his every move, turning the pursuit into a dangerous fight to bring a lawman to justice.

Decker follows a beautiful bank swindler along the California coast, but his hunt becomes tangled with a missing woman and blackmail. Finding his quarry means sorting through competing crimes while resisting distractions that could cost him his life.

Decker pursues a Russian baron whose wealth and position conceal his work as an assassin. Bringing this dangerous fugitive to justice requires the bounty hunter to confront a man comfortable with both privilege and calculated violence.

An abused woman kills her brutal husband, but his popularity turns the town against her. Gunman Lancaster becomes her protector, standing between a vengeful crowd and the fair trial she's unlikely to receive without his help.

Dean Martin asks casino pit boss Eddie Gianelli to help Marilyn Monroe, who fears she's being followed. When someone close to her disappears and another person lands in hospital, Eddie discovers that protecting her could endanger him too.

A fellow bounty hunter is gunned down, sending Decker to New York in search of those responsible. Mistaken for the dead man, he faces enemies who turn a hunt for justice into a struggle for his own survival.

Suspended New York cop Jake Gilmartin is framed for corruption and targeted for death. He turns to his estranged son, a former military policeman, for help uncovering the connections between organized crime and officers he once trusted.

Fifteen hard-boiled crime stories follow people caught in dangerous situations and compromised relationships. An honest police officer faces a setup, while a demanding mistress seeks unfamiliar company, bringing betrayal and personal vulnerability into sharply focused mysteries.

Eddie Gianelli helps Bing Crosby arrange a horse purchase, but a missing trainer and a beaten owner complicate the deal. With his friend Jerry beside him, Eddie follows the trouble into the world of racing at Del Mar.

When Ava Gardner needs help, Eddie Gianelli travels to Los Angeles and finds her frightened by something she may have done. Protecting the actress means uncovering what happened before the people pursuing her catch up with them both.

Private investigator Nick Delvecchio looks into the death of a woman he knew in high school. Hired by her family to investigate an apparent murder-suicide, he uncovers old secrets that make the case painfully personal.

Gunfighter Liz Archer arrives in Clearwater, where Clay Hammet plans to make his reputation by outdrawing her. Sheriff Al Toliver prepares to deal with the winner, while Tate Gilmore's arrival adds another complication to the looming showdown.

Former Pinkerton agent Talbot Roper is hired to defend a Civil War veteran's claim to his Medal of Honor. As Roper seeks testimony from the man's old comrades, deaths suggest someone wants the truth buried with them.

Liz Archer wakes beside a corpse in a San Francisco brothel and is arrested for murder. With help from a Chinese woman working there, she escapes and searches for whoever arranged to turn her into the culprit.

In 1963, Eddie Gianelli helps actress Abby Dalton recover photographs being used to blackmail her. Then Frank Sinatra's son is kidnapped, and Eddie is asked to handle the ransom while danger gathers around both urgent assignments.

Liz Archer agrees to protect Honey O'Day's saloon from Ed Logan, a powerful man determined to take it over. As Logan gathers armed help, Liz's attraction to one of his men complicates her stand against him.

A San Francisco politician hires the Tracker to find his missing daughter and a valuable ring. The search takes him into Chinatown's criminal underworld, where trafficking and a killer with an old grievance make the assignment especially dangerous.