Showing results by narrator "Maynard Villers" in All Categories

'The scarlet bikini which had covered a minimum of the eye-popping curves on the dead woman, lay at her feet, and my eyes focussed on her as glassily as did the dead man’s next to her. He was dead, all right. He had been shot, poisoned, stabbed, and strangled. Either somebody really had it in for him or four people had killed him. Or else it was the cleverest suicide I’d ever heard of. Me? I’m Shell Scott, private detective and I’m wondering why anybody in his right mind would commit such a complicated murder....'

Amador Montalba, Mexico City guide, and good friend of Shell Scott, alerts Scott to a wealthy woman in Mexico City who needs help. Shell is in Mexico City winding up another case and decides to follow up on the lead. Senora Lopez, wife of a prominent Mexican General, was secretly filmed during an extra-marital sex liaison with another man. After several payoffs to a blackmailer, she decides to turn the case over to Shell Scott. But the case is not one of simple blackmail. Communists appear to be involved.

Shell Scott is hired to help State Senator Paul Hershey gather information against Joe Blake, one of the biggest crooks Los Angeles has ever produced. Joe Blake is the kingpin behind the opposition party to Paul Hershey’s re-election. Blake is backing the candidate against Hershey, a Blake pawn, and using smear and innuendo in an increasingly vicious campaign. Hershey’s only defense against this onslaught is to get the information that will put Blake behind bars. That’s where Shell Scott comes in.

"'I'm trying to get back in shape,'" she said. Man, if her shape got any better she'd be banned for just walking down the street. I'm Shell Scott, private eye, and my job was to guard her day - yeah, and night. I didn't have a chance to discuss these points with her because I saw the man walking toward us. There was only one of him but he seemed to outnumber me. He was so big I was surprised his feet didn't leave holes behind him in the concrete. "Shell Scott," he rumbled. "Shake." I hardly dared....

They say that even the strongest man secretly wants to feel wanted. He even hopes to have some woman take care of him. Well, my cup was running over. Me? I’m Shell Scott, the human target for every gun in the State of California. And that’s no private eyewash...I was made to feel wanted all right...by the city, county and state police. And there was a woman with a nasty little .32 in her tiny hand, well she was just dying to take care of me, permanently. Everywhere I turned, somebody was trying to help me plan what to do with the rest of my life....

“The strait jacket’s canvas held my arms tight. My six-two was horizontal on a stretcher and the two bruisers carried it and my 205 pounds easily down the long corridor. I was confused as modern art, and being in this stupid asylum didn’t help. I was dumped onto a bed, yelling like a fiend. A needle, a stinging sensation in my neck and it was lights out for me. I awoke with a light beaming upon my face. A blade moved upward through the beam of light. And suddenly I was wide awake, thinking: This idiot is about to stab me! Me? I’m Shell Scott private eye and I’m in a lot of trouble...”

"There was a fire in her eyes that was scorching me - me, who couldn't tell whether a dame wanted to kiss me or kill me! No matter how you look at it, 36-22-35 are magic numbers. They have a real message for me. I'm Shell Scott, the private eye, and I'm very good at figures. You might say I follow them very carefully. I've been following this one for several days and learned her name is Sherry. I hated to think she was mixed in murder. But somebody was planning to send me to my friendly neighborhood mortician and I had to find out who - or die trying."

Here is a marvelous story of a Texas doctor on the Confederate side of the Civil War. It's the story of his experience as a prisoner of the Union Army during the last six months of the Civil War, his escape and adventurous return to his home in Texas. During his trek back to Texas he teams up with a female Confederate spy to get him past the Union Army. She learns he knows the location of a cache of gold stolen from the Union Army. He wants to keep it to rebuild his war-torn ranch in Texas, she wants it for the Confederacy.

Which horse is fastest, Wildfire or Sage King? No one in the Colorado River Valley knew, until a raging range fire trapped both horses and riders into a race against death.

This is the story of the great stampede of gold seekers to Alaska, written from the eyewitness viewpoint of the author. Not just a spectator, the author was among the first gold seekers who took part in the initial mining activities in the northland.

Here is an arm's length sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage. It answers the question most often asked: What finally happened to Lassiter and Jane Withersteen?

J. Harrison Bing after receiving no word from his daughter in nearly a year, went to her home in L.A. only to find she had sold the home and left without a trace. He hired a Los Angeles P. I. named William Carter to track her down and after calling from Vegas, he also disappeared. Now it is Shell Scott's turn. Assuming a simple case of finding a missing person, Shell finds out the hard way that he has bitten into an elephant.

Constanza Carmocha was unarmed - that is, she didn't have a gun. Well, she really didn't need one, either. Because she had all the weapons that have ruined men from time immemorial or better said - time immoral. One unlucky guy ended up with his throat slit because of her, and another was about to be bumped off. Shell Scott was sure to get to the bottom of this deadly dame....

Shell Scott's mental contemplation was rudely interrupted when his office door was suddenly opened and an unpleasant little man walked in with a .45 caliber automatic pointed right at Shell's midsection. Unknown to Shell Scott, some guy named Sader wanted Shell eliminated permanently. Why, is the question

Shell Scott, the shamus who has Sherlock whirling in his grave...the wacky knight-errant of gorgeous gals who leaves a trail of beautiful bodies behind him (not all of em dead)...the private eye who's every killer's public enemy.... This is the first book in this action-packed mystery series. The Case of the Vanishing Beauty began when one beauty vanished from sight and another died in a hail of bullets. Next on the murder list was lovely Lina....

A rash of hit and run deaths in Los Angeles has the press in an uproar. The police have no clue as to the primary cause and the deceased are all men who appear to have been brutalized prior to the time of the accident. But there are other aspects to the case and Shell Scott has been hired by a not so upstanding night club owner to investigate.

In the distant future, AD 6582, Professor Kato Maun transcribes an ancient writing on an archaeology find that sets off a search for an unknown lost civilization somewhere in the ancient past. With the help of a beautiful, mysterious intelligence agent known only as Lavina, Kato journeys back through time to the edge of the fire barrier, which is the beginning of their history. The lost civilization surely must lie beyond the fire barrier....

Hallettsville, Texas was overrun by Yankees and Northern corruption after the Civil War, and ex-Confederate officer Slate Creed lost everything and was named an outlaw as well.. Slate wants only one thing now that the Civil War is over...his good name back. The last thing he wants is trouble...but it just won't stop dogging his trail. First of all, there's his old pal Clay Allison, who's found himself a romantic rival in none other than Cole Younger of the notorious Younger clan.

Seeking an escape from the monotony and drudgery of days-on-end army life, Frank Rocklin, an actor, approaches his commanding general with a bold plan to spy on Vicksburg and assess its military condition. Vicksburg is the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi.

This is audiobook #9 in the Appomattox Series. It's a hot summer along the Mississippi River, and the Civil War still rages on, bringing devastation to countless lives. But David Rocklin, wealthy son of a Richmond planter, hasn't been touched by the suffering - until now. A surprise meeting with a feisty redhead (who is Confederate to the bone) forces David to make a choice: will he join the Confederate army and fight for the southern slavery he believes is wrong? Or will he risk losing the one woman he's ever loved?