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Mike Shayne #26
Stranger in Town
In a strange town, Mike Shayne meets a deadly damsel in distress
Mike Shayne is 3 hours from Miami when the sun dips below the horizon and he decides to make a pit stop. For Shayne, that means cognac, and the only bar in town is a lonely little dive whose inhabitants don’t look friendly. Shayne doesn’t care. The barkeep pulls a dusty bottle down from the top shelf, and Shayne is settling into his drink when a blonde walks through the door. As the detective admires her, she raises her hand . . . and with a gesture of her dainty little finger, marks him for death.
Two men wrestle Shayne outside, beat him senseless, and try to run him over with their car. To escape this hayseed town alive, Shayne will have to discover the identity of the dame from the bar—and why she chose for him to die.
Mike Shayne is 3 hours from Miami when the sun dips below the horizon and he decides to make a pit stop. For Shayne, that means cognac, and the only bar in town is a lonely little dive whose inhabitants don’t look friendly. Shayne doesn’t care. The barkeep pulls a dusty bottle down from the top shelf, and Shayne is settling into his drink when a blonde walks through the door. As the detective admires her, she raises her hand . . . and with a gesture of her dainty little finger, marks him for death.
Two men wrestle Shayne outside, beat him senseless, and try to run him over with their car. To escape this hayseed town alive, Shayne will have to discover the identity of the dame from the bar—and why she chose for him to die.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1955
5 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Brett Halliday
540 books64 followersAKA David Dresser
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names
Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names
Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 1, 2022
There are advantages to being a private eye. One is the uncanny ability to heal. You get viciously sapped — you recover, quick enough to make sure it’s one of the villains gets killed instead of you. You get shot —it’s just a glancing blow and a band aid the pharmacist hands you is all you need. You drink a tankful of liquor and then try to get away from your parking ticket in your car — nobody screams DUI. (The cops sap you with the blackjack but the uncanny ability to heal kicks in.)
But, there’s one problem. You never get to take a vacation without running into trouble. Poor Mike Shayne. He pulls into some average corrupt berg in Mid Florida and just wants a cognac after his fishing trip. And before you can say John D. McDonald, some doll (a real doll, too) points him out to some thugs at a bar. It’s instant pulp fiction trouble. Of course amnesia is in the middle of all this, along with corrupt cops and a dodgy sanitarium, and it’s all nonstop until Shayne solves it all.
This is a fun one with a solid plot line. However, I don’t see the difference between an alcoholic bender and an average Mike Shayne day. Fortunately, there’s another PI superpower — the ability to flush massive amounts of booze while solving cases and keeping curvy girls interested. I wonder, though, if these guys actually remember all the fun they are having.
But, there’s one problem. You never get to take a vacation without running into trouble. Poor Mike Shayne. He pulls into some average corrupt berg in Mid Florida and just wants a cognac after his fishing trip. And before you can say John D. McDonald, some doll (a real doll, too) points him out to some thugs at a bar. It’s instant pulp fiction trouble. Of course amnesia is in the middle of all this, along with corrupt cops and a dodgy sanitarium, and it’s all nonstop until Shayne solves it all.
This is a fun one with a solid plot line. However, I don’t see the difference between an alcoholic bender and an average Mike Shayne day. Fortunately, there’s another PI superpower — the ability to flush massive amounts of booze while solving cases and keeping curvy girls interested. I wonder, though, if these guys actually remember all the fun they are having.
July 19, 2025
This 1955 thriller was a perfect read. PI Mike Shayne is in the middle of something, but doesn't know what until the last two chapters.
Mike is in Brockton, a small town four hours from home, when a gorgeous young woman walks into the bar he's in, comes up to him, and points silently at him. Two men appear. One bashes Mike in the head, the other pulls a gun. The girl runs out the door. Just as Mike starts to get the upper hand in this fight, a third man appears and knocks him out from behind. He wakes to find himself in a car with the first two men who are planning to leave his unconscious body in the road so he looks like the victim of an auto accident. Mike challenges this plan.
I love books where the character doesn't know what is going on, but, with the reader, sniffs out every lead to get to the truth--and what a truth! Every person, every action, every location, is a clue in this gangbuster read. I couldn't put it down once I started.
Highest possible recommendation. I'm eager to read to read the next Shayne book in my collection!
Mike is in Brockton, a small town four hours from home, when a gorgeous young woman walks into the bar he's in, comes up to him, and points silently at him. Two men appear. One bashes Mike in the head, the other pulls a gun. The girl runs out the door. Just as Mike starts to get the upper hand in this fight, a third man appears and knocks him out from behind. He wakes to find himself in a car with the first two men who are planning to leave his unconscious body in the road so he looks like the victim of an auto accident. Mike challenges this plan.
I love books where the character doesn't know what is going on, but, with the reader, sniffs out every lead to get to the truth--and what a truth! Every person, every action, every location, is a clue in this gangbuster read. I couldn't put it down once I started.
Highest possible recommendation. I'm eager to read to read the next Shayne book in my collection!
March 28, 2021
I've read quite of few of Halliday's Mike Shayne mysteries and some have been just OK and some good and a just a few have been very good. This has been one of the very good ones. If you like hard boiled detective fiction from the mid 1950's then you can't go wrong with this one or most of the other novels in the series.
November 16, 2013
Brett Halliday knew how to catch a reader's attention from the get-go. The book begins with Michael Shayne stopping for a drink in a small Florida town. A beautiful young woman walks out to him and then two hoods drag him out of the bar, beat up and nearly run him down with their car.
Shayne gets thrown in jail after blowing his top in a confrontation with the local police force but hangs around town determined to find out who the woman was that fingered him and why she did it. Along the way, Shayne discovers that she was an amnesiac who stumbled into town and was supposed to have been taken back to her father in Orlando. Shayne discovers the story was a lie and to find the truth he has to untangle a web of crime and corruption.
The book buzzes along and is a fast paced story filled with plenty of suspense and great plot twists and action throughout most of it. The only flaw in the pacing is that the book does slow down about 3/4 of the way through before wrapping up strong with the last chapter and a half.
The book also gives some keen insights into social attitudes of the mid-1950s and deals with a hot topic of today. Even though Shayne is no huge moralist, he reflected the values of his time in a way that's intriguing or sad depending on your point of view.
Shayne gets thrown in jail after blowing his top in a confrontation with the local police force but hangs around town determined to find out who the woman was that fingered him and why she did it. Along the way, Shayne discovers that she was an amnesiac who stumbled into town and was supposed to have been taken back to her father in Orlando. Shayne discovers the story was a lie and to find the truth he has to untangle a web of crime and corruption.
The book buzzes along and is a fast paced story filled with plenty of suspense and great plot twists and action throughout most of it. The only flaw in the pacing is that the book does slow down about 3/4 of the way through before wrapping up strong with the last chapter and a half.
The book also gives some keen insights into social attitudes of the mid-1950s and deals with a hot topic of today. Even though Shayne is no huge moralist, he reflected the values of his time in a way that's intriguing or sad depending on your point of view.
May 15, 2017
This is a classic Mike Shayne mystery and a real good one at that. This story starts with all kinds of action including the appearance of the most beautiful girl Shayne has ever seen, a vicious bar fight, a killing, and all kinds of puzzling elements swirling around. Always great when these stories start with lots of action that never really seems to let up.
This one takes Shayne out of bustling Miami to a small town which is not too keen on outsiders and in which quite a few mysterious accidents have taken place. The theme of being a stranger in a strange land is a familiar one to pulp literature, but Halliday does it as well as anybody. You can feel the tension as Shayne walks into the bar and feel every eye on him and no one to bother to lend a hand to aid him. His fame means little here away from Miami, not to the police who think he's just another drunk.
September 17, 2023
One of the better Michael Shayne’s with an intriguing setup. He stops by the town of Brockton on the way back to Miami for a drink. A young, scared woman comes to his table and he’s grabbed by three men he doesn’t know, beaten up, and taken out in a car to be murdered. He escapes and one of the bad guys dies instead. He sees the young woman again and is told she has amnesia. A woman he takes out for a drink is shot in front of him and Shayne runs afoul of the police. Because he needs to get back at the men who almost killed him, he befriends the young woman whose sister had an abortion at a sanitarium outside of town and died during the operation. The police chief profits from the sanitarium so does nothing about it. Mike figures this all out and as he’s about to be shot by the police chief, calls the state troopers who arrive in the nick of time. whew! Fast paced and engrossing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2021
Mike Shayne accidentally stumbles into a Mickey Spillane novel! In the first pages he stops in a bar for a drink in a town off the road on his way back to Miami and is immediately jumped by some murderous thugs. It pretty much runs at a full sprint from there. At one point he runs in with a biker gang and I thought for sure he was gonna get his ass kicked again. At another point he tells a woman he’s interviewing that he’s a private detective, and she responds with,
“You mean one of those private eyes that goes around slapping dames and tearing their clothes off? Like that Mike Hammer in the movies?”
😂😂 I just about died.
“You mean one of those private eyes that goes around slapping dames and tearing their clothes off? Like that Mike Hammer in the movies?”
😂😂 I just about died.
November 12, 2019
Just Passing Through
Mike Shayne was just passing through Brocton, when he is fingered by a beautiful girl, and then has to contend with 3 thugs who want to kill him. But why? Add in a state's attorney who was killed in an a accident, the beautiful girl has amnesia, and a crooked cop, and you got Mike Shayne on a case that could cost him his life. Will he survive? Read it, and find out
You'll be glad you did!
Mike Shayne was just passing through Brocton, when he is fingered by a beautiful girl, and then has to contend with 3 thugs who want to kill him. But why? Add in a state's attorney who was killed in an a accident, the beautiful girl has amnesia, and a crooked cop, and you got Mike Shayne on a case that could cost him his life. Will he survive? Read it, and find out
You'll be glad you did!
March 9, 2014
I do believe this is my first Mike Shayne mystery, though maybe not my first Brett Halliday. I enjoyed the easy read and solid characters. I suppose Mike Shayne is your typical Hard-Boiled detective. He's tough, no nonsense, a personal sense of what's right and what's wrong. I must admit I've always thought of Hard-Boiled detectives as being out of places like New York, Chicago, and L.A. and not Miami, so that was different.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews