Raven House Mysteries — Multiple Authors

• Sep-1980
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The ex-con was very dead, a knife embedded in his back...and lawyer Jeremy Locke’s address in his pocket. The Scotland Yard that meant Jeremy was in the thick of things along with his older brother, a longtime fugitive from justice. Jeremy kn...

• Sep-1980
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Someone was killing redheaded girls Three of them had been savagely bludgeoned to death and the small town seethed in turmoil. Police Chief Emil Martin's job was squarely on the line. He had exactly one week to find the ruthless killer or the t...

• Sep-1980
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She starved to death in the midst of plenty. But the 'plenty' was on the other side of a locked door. Someone had gone to great pains to confine her in the soundproof room. With no window, with no telephone, with no way to reach the outside w...

• Sep-1980
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It was just another job--a job of murder! If Tom Scott divorced his wealthy wife he'd be left without a cent And if he didn't have a cent he wouldn't have his beautiful mistress, Eve. It was a story Jeff had heard before--and he knew he'd found...

• Oct-1980
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Did he murder his ex-wife or was he protecting someone? In any case, his behavior was peculiar. One moment Jim Fuller vehemently denied his guilt. The next moment he just as vehemently demanded that Richard Trenton not do a single thing to prove him ...

• Oct-1980
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Johnny McCoy knew too much. It wasn't safe to let him live. He knew about the Wahoo Lounge, a tawdry bar whose clients were interested in more than just liquor. He also knew about the regular Wahoo Lounge customer who had planted the bomb in Bart ...

• Oct-1980
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There was no escape--no escape at all. He had walked into their trap. Now he was gazing helplessly down the barrel of a pistol. The question wasn't would they shoot, but when. "I'm not working alone, " he managed to say. "You can kill me, but the st...

• Oct-1980
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Lt. Luis Mendoza, the dapper, very rich, and very clever head of the L.A.P.D. (Homicide), had little time to indulge his new-found delight in Kipling. For the rains came, bringing with them a torrent of crime to the Los Angeles area. There was the us...

• Nov-1980
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The peaceful countryside concealed a deadly killer. When newlywed Anne Marryat went to live with her husband in a cozy country cottage in the village of Ashfield, life seemed calm and blissfully serene. But then a killer struck, and Anne, a lawyer by...

• Nov-1980
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Now the crime was worse…much worse It had started as a minor complaint against an illegal after-hours nightclub. Now it was cold-blooded murder. McGregor, retired police inspector, connoisseur of good food -- and beautiful women -- could n...

• Nov-1980
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The visitor was very careful. He didn’t leave a calling card. But he did leave Judge Robidaux sprawled on the floor of his palatial New Orleans mansion -- shot four times in the face. First to fall under suspicion was the judge’s stunningly...

• Nov-1980
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Most of the straitlaced residents of Kingscombe felt secure in their belief that nothing exciting would ever happen in their lives. Their tranquility was unexpectedly shattered by three sinister events. The first -- a cruel act of vandalism. The s...

• Dec-1980
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Scandal was his business - his murder was the result... When Norman Russell was shot with his own pistol, Scotland Yard immediately charged a renowned surgeon, Mark Sheridan, with murder. They claimed it was revenge. Russell had accused Sheridan of p...

• Dec-1980
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Lee was a very deadly lady who knew what she wanted... And she wanted Mike Nardini. So Mike obliged, and became Lee's partner in a series of smooth, profitable burglaries. Mike made good money, but he was much more interested in the fringe benefits. ...

• Dec-1980
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Newly rich, married, and bored, Brock investigates an upper-class tragedy Private detective Brock Callahan, onetime star of the Los Angeles Rams, is racing toward a touchdown when the morgue’s phone call wakes him up. His only rich relative, Uncle ...

• Dec-1980
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It was a very simple case -- just a matter of missing money But it soon become more...a lot more. First there was a young widow whose lust for wealth was insatiable; then there was a half-crazed ex-cop who decided to take the law into his own hands...

• Dec-1980
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She changed her will at 7 pm. By 10 pm she was dead... When the body of Maureen Ross, a retired actress worth millions, was found in her bed, suffocated with a pillow, Scotland Yard arrested her grandson, Kevin. After all, he would have inherited her...

• Dec-1980
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Acting is a cruel business--and sometimes a deadly one! One young actress died because she knew too much. Another had been savagely attacked. Was the theater killer one of the cast or one of the stage crew? No one knew. Whoever he was, he had a ...

• Jan-1981
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Murder is a difficult habit to kick. The first one’s the hardest, then killing just gets easier and easier. The retired admiral had been tied and tortured, but he wouldn't talk. So they left him to drown in a bathtub. The local police had no leads...

• Jan-1981
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He killed quietly, quickly and without any remorse They called him The Sweeper. Entire families were wiped out as he cut a swath of terror through the quiet Chicago suburb. No one knew why he killed. His victims were peaceful and law-abiding. T...

• Jan-1981
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She was the missing heiress to an immense fortune… Lawyer Antony Maitland had agreed to look for her while on vacation in the United States, but he didn’t know that his holiday would turn into a terrifying high-speed chase across the continent...

• Jan-1981
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No one mourned for Gregory Banning -- gifted artist and dedicated sadist. Everyone in town had a reason to hate him. No one cried when he drank a deadly cocktail at his own party and died in agony. In fact there was an air of quiet celebration i...

• Jan-1981
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Henry Polk had been the most hated man in town... He'd cheated his brother out of an inheritance. He'd seduced the minister's daughter. He'd burned out a neighbor and bought his land cheap. When he left town everyone breathed a sigh o...

• Jan-1981
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Nothing's more ruthless than a big man in a small town... He'll do anything to get what he wants. Anything. And no one in town will stop him. He owns the police and he owns the coroner. He can get a murder turned into an "accidental death" with no...

• Feb-1981
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Death was the final payoff -- swift, violent death. It was a sweet deal -- all the builder had to do was pay the housing commissioner and his troubles would be over. The cut corners and the broken regulations would be ignored. His pretty new housi...

• Feb-1981
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She went looking for help- and she found death. She was one woman alone facing the ruthless drug dealers who were ruining the town's young people. She appealed to investigator Simon Kaye for help. But he hadn't been able to prevent her murder. Racked...

• Feb-1981
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He was being tortured - agonizingly tortured. All policemen make enemies, and Lieutenant Martin Holmberg was no exception. A number of men had sworn revenge, but he'd never feared them. Not until now. Now he and his family were being terrorized. Some...

• Feb-1981
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Delilah West was a broken woman...Her world had been smashed to pieces the day she found her husband shot and bleeding to death on the beach near her home. Now she lived for the day when she would face his killer. Obsessed by revenge, she combed sout...

• Feb-1981
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• Feb-1981
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Two men were murdered because they knew the secret. The secret that had been kept for two thousand years! There is nothing more deadly than gold. Men will beg for it, steal for it, kill for it. And when the gold is the missing treasure from King Solo...

• Mar-1981
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Comic strips are big business -- and big business can be lethal The profits from a successful strip can come to millions. So when Archie Judd -- the creator of "Poor Little Pearl" -- got sick, someone had to take over from him. To keep the strip goi...

• Mar-1981
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It was a hot campaign -- and a dirty one. The present governor of the state was controlled by the Mafia. The other candidate had the tapes to prove it. And he was going to use them in his campaign. Then the candidate’s daughter was kidnapped ...

• Mar-1981
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A crime king’s stooge … until he sees an innocent girl tortured… SLAUGHTER AT PALM SPRINGS! A beautiful model and an ex-bandleader … wanted by the FBI and crime syndicate killers. ...

• Mar-1981
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Little Sally found it hard to keep a man… Her first husband fell off the roof and died. A lot of people thought she’d pushed him. So did the police. She was brought to trial, but a clever lawyer got her off. Little Sally married the clever ...

• Mar-1981
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She had been the most beautiful woman in Paris… Suddenly she was lovely no longer, her body sprawled like a broken puppet, the strangler’s cord embedded in her neck. The list of her lovers was long and impressive. She had known financiers a...

• Mar-1981
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Her first husband had a lot of money -- he was also a bedridden diabetic. So she nursed him all by herself. She bathed him and cooked his favorite food. She even gave him his injections, just as the doctor had shown her. And in spite of all her lovin...

• Apr-1981
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He made a stupid mistake and it cost him his life! Joe Puma had been a private investigator for a long time. He should have known better than to meet a stranger on the outskirts of town - especially a stranger with Mafia connections. It was a mistake...

• Apr-1981
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Lies can be dangerous--they can also be deadly! Martha Pease was a glutton for publicity. She would no anything to get her name in the paper--even lie. She lied about corruption in the state's highest courts, about politicians who were "...

• Apr-1981
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They had nothing in common - except contests and death! It was a small informal group, and different kinds of people belonged to it. Their backgrounds and professions were varied, but they did have one thing in common - they all loved to enter contes...

• Apr-1981
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He had died from natural causes - or so they thought. Even the police didn't bother to investigate - until journalist Alex Carr told them how the man had been murdered. They didn't believe him at first. But someone else did - someone who knew the dea...

• Apr-1981
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Psycholigist Whit Ely thought life was going splendidly for his patient, Janice Lavery. She certainly had no reason to end her life. But suddenly she was dead, and the verdict was suicide. Ely needed to know where his diagnosis had gone wrong. He tal...

• Apr-1981
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Alec Bradley was on location and on a very tight schedule, photographing lobstermen one day, seascape artists and their painting the next. He hadn't counted on being interrupted cy a murder investigation. He hadn't counted on being the next target ...

• May-1981
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He was a pillar of the community... Wealthy and retired, Clarence Bell was the image of the virtuous civic leader, with impeccable credentials and a host of local admirers. Suddenly he was dead, his skull battered by a savage assailant. Just as sudde...

• May-1981
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There’s nothing wrong with making movies Or with making money -- lots and lots of it. But when Melville Hirsch accepted financial support for his new film production from the Mafia, he found himself on the wrong side of the law. And when the ...

• May-1981
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When private detective Johnny Marshall was asked by Jeremiah Peter Bundy to investigate Bundy's own death, all Marshall could do was laugh. -- But the laughing stopped when Marshall discovered that a certain Jeremiah Peter Bundy had in fact just be...

• May-1981
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Janet Valek was on the run... And private investigator Delilah West had been hired to find her. Delilah spent a lot of time on the case. She learned more than she wanted to about Janet's abandoned futile life and the questionable company she kept. B...

• May-1981
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A sniper was loose on the Chicago strip. And the city was running scared. He killed from the rooftops, swiftly, terribly and at random. He shot secretaries, tourists, even policemen - anyone who came within range of his high-powered rifle. And he van...

• May-1981
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It was just stomachache--but this time she died It was presumed she died of natural - causes--until the doctor refused to sign the death certificate. And when all the signs began pointing to murder, barrister-to-be Antony Maitland found himself ca...

• Jun-1981
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Tusk Smith was as hit man. He depended on his cool head to keep him out of trouble. He set up his quarry, made his kill, and left as quietly as possible. He didn't feel grief and he didn't feel guilt. But then his best friend was murdered and he lost...

• Jun-1981
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In Lieutenant Luis Mendoza's first case, he is faced with a three-way mystery involving the senseless killing of Elena Ramirez, a blackmailing involving a below-the-radar adoption, and a young man's guilt. And when Mendoza connects Elena's death with...

• Jun-1981
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Simon Kaye never looked for trouble... But sometimes trouble came looking for him! He was a private investigator, but he wasn't above doing a favor for a friend. Like Doria Rafe - a girl whose parents had run afoul of the local mob. So Simon pu...

• Jun-1981
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Things aren't always what they seem...Inspector Ronald Dobbs of Scotland Yard thought the Mediterranean cruise would be a good rest from fighting crime. And the shipboard masquerade ball was a good way to relax and have fun. But the mask of one of th...

• Jun-1981
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Everyone was on edge - who would be the next victim? Jeremy Locke accepted an unusual challenge when he agreed to do some sleuthing for a London-based theatrical group. Stage rehearsals for a new production had been seriously disrupted by a rash of b...

• Jun-1981
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There was more than cream in Professor Ripley Quinn's morning coffee. One of eight people present in the art department office had slipped in a spoonful of poison. NYPD detective Sigrid Harald stepped back and viewed this puzzler carefully, thoug...

• Jul-1981
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He dealt in cocaine...and murder He was known as "The Frenchman," and when he wasn't peddling his deadly merchandise he lay low in the wild, swampy backwaters of Louisiana. A team of Federal agents wanted him on a narcotics charge. ...

• Jul-1981
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All she wanted was to be left alone. When Grace Huntington was discharged from the hospital after a long illness, she looked forward to the peace and solitude of her comfortable house in the country. Except for the neighboring family, there would be ...

• Jul-1981
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The stain on their name was darkened - with murder... Jock Thorold's daughters openly resented Malcolm, their wealthy father's protege. They strongly suspected Malcolm was their illegitimate half brother - a scandalous matter none of them dared to pr...

• Jul-1981
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Time was the only thing she needed -- and was denied Barbara Caldwell was a lady with a problem -- a crumbling marriage and an unwanted pregnancy. To clear her head, she retreated to her summer cottage on the Cape. On Sunday she was seen walkin...

• Jul-1981
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Dateline: Dallas, November 1963… A great and well-loved man was cut down by an assassin’s bullet as he rode in a motorcade through the streets of the southern city. As bystanders screamed their anger and disbelief, one man slipped quietly away...

• Jul-1981
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Sam Shurk lay on the bed, one arm dangling, his head at an angle no living person’s head could be, the red finger welts on his throat already turning purple. I bent over him. A thin trickle of blood oozed from his mouth. His neck had been broken…...

• Aug-1981
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The rich have the money to keep their follies private… But sometimes the price can be too high! When Robert C. Whitney III started to go off the rails, his family paid Attorney John Rose to keep the police and the press quiet. It was easy ...

• Aug-1981
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Long Distance A hurry-up call from L.A. brought Johnny Liddell 3,000 miles to the sprawling Beverly Hills estate of T.V. star Dirk Messner. New York’s shrewdest private eye found the handsome playboy in the middle of a press conference. The report...

• Aug-1981
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He was an easy man to hate--and to murder Desmond Connors was the dirtiest stage director in the business. He cheated on his wife. He blackmailed members of his cast. He broke contracts. And he got away with it. Finally someone had had enough. ...

• Aug-1981
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The Ace of Spades continues the case histories of Mendoza, the Mexican detective of the Los Angeles Police Department. Lt. Mendoza specializes in homicides … he has brains, uncanny flair, wealth, a passion for justice and Abyssinian cats. He has a ...

• Aug-1981
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The murder method was always the same, and the killer always struck on a Friday. The police thought psychologist Whit Ely should have the answers. But all he knew was that another Friday was coming up. And Friday was a killing day!...

• Aug-1981
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• Sep-1981
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He would stop at nothing in his search for Mr. X... Ten of the jurors who had failed to acquit young David Earle of manslaughter were still living. But David Earle was dead - a suicide because of their verdict. Millionaire Jonathon Erle knew one o...

• Sep-1981
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Somebody made a killing when Billy died Odds were six-to-one in Billy Cantrell's favor - he was the hottest middleweight to come along in years. Who'd have thought he'd go down in the fifth round...and never get up again? The coroner said it was a he...

• Sep-1981
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He was callous, cruel and completely immoral... That's what the three women said. And they were willing to go to court to see that Robert was punished for what he had done. But Robert said that the women were total strangers to him--that he ha...

• Sep-1981
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A thirty-something junk-food maven and brash, brainy Berkeley cop, Jill Smith usually doesn't spend much time contemplating her navel. But she accepted an invitation to see the new guru in town. She was as shocked as the rest of the packed house wh...

• Sep-1981
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NATHAN PHILLIPS, Private Eye. He is young and poor and angry. His partner had just died. Now Nate has to show the skeptics he can run the detective agency alone. ELIZABETH GREY. She is old and rich and nasty. Her drug dealer son, Steven, has disap...

• Sep-1981
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She selected her victims with care. She dispatched them with cunning. Then she vanished into thin air! The woman came out of nowhere. No one knew who she was, or why she came, or what made her do the ghastly things she did. They only knew she had a ...