Targeted by thugs, a wrestling impresario reaches out to an old friend When Otto Lidke got a tryout in pro football, he hired a lawyer friend named Jim Raiford to handle his contract. The negotiations were bungled, forcing both men into a career change. Trying to start a pro wrestling circuit in Denver, Lidke runs afoul of the national federation, which does everything it can-legal and otherwise-to stamp out his new venture. When shady business practices escalate into threats on his life, Lidke calls on Raiford, now a private investigator, to dig up some dirt on the men who are trying to put...

With its high stakes and uncertain outcome, the mystery tale is the most popular form of fiction in the United States. Crime Classics presents spellbinding works by such masters as Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy Sayers, and Agatha Christie, as well as delightful gems from less familiar writers like Cornell Woolrich and intriguing tales by authors not usually associated with mystery writing--Flannery O'Connor, Jorge Luis Borges, and William Faulkner.

Burns and Sullivan introduce the anthology by tracing the history of the genre and providing a...

When a sailor dies under unusual circumstances, Raiford goes undercover on the high seas

The Rossi family received only a handful of letters after their son shipped out on the supertanker Aurora Victorious. The first dispatches were from Harold himself, describing the blend of tedium and excitement that defined life onboard the ship. The last communication came from the ship's owners: four brief sentences informing them that their son had died and been buried at sea. Desperate to know more, the Rossis turn to James and Julie Raiford, the father-daughter detective team...