The Bleeding Scissors
After losing at a poker game, Leo Aikin heads home in the freezing Connecticut rain to the home he shares with his wife, Judith, and her sister Paula--the Runyon girls. But they're not there, and Leo begins to worry. A search of the area turns up their car, but not the sisters. Soon, his nerve-wracking search leads to New York, where he begins to turn up a hidden history of failed theatrical careers, burlesque houses, and a possible murder. Shadowed by an affable private detective named Florian Singleton, Leo delves into a past that is now beginning to overshadow the present. His only lead is a handsome man seen talking to his wife the day of her disappearance--and a bloody nightmare image of death!
The Evil Days
Caleb Dawson lives in the suburbs and works for a New York publisher. Every day he takes the train into the city. But today is different. Today he learns that his wife Sally has found a lost bag of jewels which the TV reporters are announcing belong to the wife of the owner of his publishing company. Sally does not intend to give up the jewels--she wants more than Caleb's salary can provide. Then Caleb discovers the murdered body of a local poet whose latest collection of unsaleable poetry the owner of the publishing company had just asked Caleb to accept. But nothing prepares him for the shady characters who come looking for the jewels--or the sneaking suspicion that there is more to the poet's death than mere coincidence.