MURDER ME FOR NICKELS Walter Lippit makes music all over town. He owns the juke boxes that play the tunes that keeps the bars and the diners hopping. Jack St. Louis works for Lippit, smoothing the customers and keeping the nickels coming. But then along comes Benotti and the Chicago syndicate to louse up the operation. It's everything Jack can do to stay one step ahead. One step ahead of Benotti's gang, Lippet--and Lippit's willing wife Patty, who wants to be a singer and is convinced that Jack can make that happen too. And maybe he can. It's all in a week's work. BENNY MUSCLES IN Benny Tapkow has worked as crime boss Pendleton's chauffeur for seven years, but he's itching to get ahead. He feels like he deserves a piece of the action, but Pendleton won't budge. So Benny strikes a deal with Big Al Alverato to kidnap Pendleton's daughter Pat to get him in with the rival gang. But the snatch doesn't come off as planned, and now Benny is stuck with Pat, a hellion with a temper and plenty of mood swings. Pendleton's men are after him and he has to dope her just to keep her in line. The last thing he figured on was falling in love.

THE SILENT WALL Matty Matthews has been to the town of Forza d'Aguil before. Stationed there with a small group of soldiers during WWII, it was here that Matty fell in love with Rosanna. It was a sweet, short-lived affair until the soldiers unexpectedly got orders to pull out. Matty never got to say goodbye. Now he's back in Sicily, drawn to the mountain town after all these years. But the citizens of Forza d'Aguil are easy to offend, and when Matty inadvertently crosses Pino, the mafioso sabotages his leaving. Trapped in Forza d'Aguil, hemmed in on all sides by the oppression of the town and its silent citizens, he's stuck in the middle of mafia country with no way out. He has only the help of the innkeeper Vinciguerra, a man he can't understand, and the passion of the sweet Sophia. Or is she part of the sinister web, too? THE RETURN OF MARVIN PALAVER Marvin Palaver dies at the worst possible moment in life, just when he is coming out even with his nemesis, fellow scrap seller Sidney Minsk. He is so close. The contract is signed and Sydney has just bought back his own scrap, the deal of a lifetime. Marve knows happiness supreme. But as the tears of joy make his eyes swim, there comes a bump in his chest, and he is dead before he hits the floor. But death doesn't stop Marvin. His masterful schwindel must be complete. So Marve finagles his way back to the material plane for a bit of artful ghosting. Sidney has hidden the contract away, confident that he's the only one who knows about it. All Marve needs to do is get him to reveal it--he should live so long

THE CUT OF THE WHIP Daniel Port is driving through Texas when the other car appears out of nowhere. When Port eventually wakes up, he finds a ministering angel named Jane and her father, Carl Heering, the richest man in town. Heering admits that it was his son, Robert, that ran into Port and that the kid has run off with important business papers. He offers Port an easy grand to bring his son and the papers back. But when Port tracks the kid down, all is not as it seems. The business papers are love letters, the Heering heir is kidnapped, and Port finds he must solve the mystery and rescue Robert before he himself is implicated in the plot and put in prison for kidnapping. BRING ME ANOTHER CORPSE He could go it alone, or he could do it with the knowledge and help of a big organization. He didn't like either alternative because it would be too much like going back, like starting all over in the kind of a life about which he no longer had any illusions ... All those surface satisfactions that used to make life spin around with a speed that made you think, Sure now--you're going someplace. "I'll try it your way," he said to Lubinski, "and I hope it's the fast way out." Lubinski smiled at Port. The smile lasted a second, and then Lubinski opened his briefcase and drew out the usual folder. "It can be fast," he said. "A lot of it is already set up." "Where do I fit?" "You go to Cleveland," said Lubinski, "and you hire out as your own killer..." TIME ENOUGH TO DIE Port thinks he's escaped his problems. Time moves slowly in the Mexican coastal village of Guanadera, and that's just the way he likes it--the sun on his face, a beer in his hand and nothing but Maria on his mind. So when Maria asks him to help her find her missing neighbor, an elderly gent named Kiamoto, he doesn't give the project much thought. How could he know that d'Ortega and his henchman Capo were also looking for Kiamoto? They figure that an American gangster--and why else would Port be living in Guanadera?--must be in on the caper. Because Kiamoto is much more than he seems. And pretty soon there are American agents in on the game. Just when Port thought he was out of the rackets for good, he gets pulled into a crime that might cost him his life.