Mission Fear — George Harmon Coxe

Mission of Fear, first published in 1962, is a novel by master crime fiction author George Harmon Coxe. From the dust-jacket: Sam Adler appeared one afternoon at Marion Hayden's door trying for the big pay-off -- Blackmail. The next day he was dead -- paid-off with a knife in the back -- and for the Haydens the nightmare had just begun. Adler's story had been stunning enough before -- now, with State Police Lieutenant Garvey pushing hard it could mean a murder indictment for both of them. And Garvey kept the questions coming fast -- questions that all reduced to one: Was Ted Corbin alive? Ted Corbin -- Marion Hayden's ex-husband, and by every evidence dead these two years in an airplane accident. Doris Lamar knew some of the answers -- but she had her own good reasons for keeping them to herself. John Hayden didn't have any answers -- yet. But he did have two photographs and a hunch; and that was why he was traveling desperately across the country now -- in search of a dead man. For if Corbin were alive he might know all the answers -- might very well be the answer.

This was John Hayden's last chance: he had to find Corbin ... he had to find him.

George Harmon Coxe (1901-1984) was a prolific author of crime fiction, publishing 63 novels between 1937 and 1975.