TO FIND CORA

Cora has run off with another man, and Joe Byars is sick with the loss. It makes him so crazy, he starts searching everywhere for Cora. The memory of her long, flowing black hair and alabaster skin haunts him. Eventually Joe gets a lead in Frigate, Oklahoma. A couple, the woman matching Cora's description, has been seen occasionally coming into town. Joe drives out to a barren, desolate farmhouse, and is convinced at first that the woman coming to the door is his Cora. But Joe has found Viola instead, and a wreck of a man named Hall. They inhabit their own...

DEAD DOLLS DON'T TALK

They didn't have a body, but all the evidence proves to the jury that Harry L. Cotton murdered Bonnie Deering on her husband's yacht. Doc Hart is so sure, he even persuades the one holdout on the jury to change her vote. After the trial is over, Hart picks up a young lady outside the courthouse and allows himself to be seduced by her, only to find himself in bed with Cotton's wife. That's when he realizes a mistake has been made. Because though Peggy Cotton has no intention of helping her cheating husband escape the death penalty, she has seen Bonnie...

RAPTURE ALLEY

No one needs Lora. Ken claims to love her, but he is married to Lora's wheelchair-ridden sister, Chris, and he doesn't really need her. And all Lora wants is to be needed. Lora feels alone, defeated by herself. Then Arty comes along. He helps her fill this hole in her heart with something better than love--escape. Through him she meets Boyd, the nightclub singer, with his own brand of addicting salvation. Soon drugs become Lora's cushion against a hurtful world. They allow her to float above her problems. But they can't keep the pain away forever. And...

A HAVEN FOR THE DAMNED

The Yucca City National Bank has been robbed. A cashier, Matt Bishop, is accidentally shot by one of the guards and taken hostage. The robbers, Fletch and Poole, haven't been out of prison long, and they've got a lot to lose if they're caught. So they lam it into the hills with the wounded clerk, all the way to Lust, New Mexico, a ghost town near the Mexican border. Here they find Josh Carrdell, a solitary prospector and the only one left in Lust besides his mean-as-sin dog, George. But they are soon joined by Susan Bishop, hot on the trail of her...

It's Always Four O'Clock

When Stan first meets Royal Mauch, he isn't impressed. He's digging the scene at the Treble Clef and Royal, this thin little guy two seats down, is so boiled he can't get his cigarette up to his mouth. But they start talking music, and Stan introduces him to Walt and Berte. And before you know it, with Royal's unique arrangements, they have a jazz combo. But Royal is no ordinary jazz pianist--this guy plays from somewhere out there. Stan and Walt have a hard enough time just keeping up with him, and Berte--well, she's so in love with Walt,...

TROUBLE RIDES TALL

Bryant Shafter is the trouble marshal. Town leaders call him in when they need a gun to quiet things down. Which is why Bry settled in Pony Wells. But now the town is under control. They don't need him anymore--more particularly, they don't need to be paying his salary. Even his young deputy, Zach Adams, thinks it's time he moved on. So when three businessmen from Gravehead make him an offer to leave Pony Wells to clean up their town, he's sorely tempted--holding down the law is what Bry does best. Until a young prostitute named Glory is found...

Last Job for a Killer

The governor said, "You've come for amnesty?"

"That's right." Slattery's mouth was dry.

"How come?" the governor breathed. "You, of all men?"

Rage thickened Slattery's voice. "Why not?"

"Amnesty for Ben Slattery. You want to quit your side of the law and join ours?"

Slattery said "Ours? You don't mean ours, you mean yours, don't you Governor?"

"Ours," Fallon barked. "Mine and the rest of the law-abiding citizens of this Territory. You want to join us?"

Slattery was silent.

"Why? Why are you here? Why...