The incredible words in the diary stood — clearly accusing: Last night I sharpened the kitchen knives for her. When I finished the largest carving knife she took it and held it so tightly her knuckles showed white. “This is my pet,” she said. “I call it Mr. Killer”.

This time the sleek dancer and her hotshot pads weren’t going to hoodwink Bren Harris... this time he was walking into their set-up — armed and shooting.

XMAS MARKS THE PLOT

Twelve Christmas mysteries — gift wrapped in entertainment and suspense — ready to take home for the holidays in this delightful collection selected from Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion, British detective extraordinaire, solves a country killing in which delivering a Christmas card was simply murder. Rex Stout sends a crotchety patrolman out to investigate a yuletide jewel theft on Manhattan’s mean streets. John D. MacDonald leaves us a secretary’s corpse on Christmas Street along with a cop’s clever ruse to catch her killer. And Santa Claus himself hitches up a sleighload of chills in stories by George Baxt, Malcolm McClintick, James Powell, and many more... for it’s ho, ho, homicide in the season to guess whodunit.

MYSTERY FOR CHRISTMAS

A robot detective? Yes Sir! And something very special, both as a robot and a detective.

A man was trying to kill her, and yet he made no threat, just a soft, irresistible suggestion.

Fearfully Carol waited, knowing Max was being judged as a husband as well as an artist — judged by another woman.

Here is a holiday story, all wrapped up in tinsel and tied with a bright red bow.

Other Times, Other Worlds

Among these superb stories—

A Child Is Crying

— A frightening look at a seven-year-old boy whose intelligence far surpasses that of top military experts...

Flaw

— An intensely dramatic story that challenges the reach for the stars...

But Not to Dream

— The startling tale of a scientist who prefers the strange and elusive world of insects to his own family...

Ring Around the Redhead

— The story of a murder case that hinges on the testimony of a stranger from another planet...

These are just a few of the tantalizing tales from this extraordinary collection of science fiction.

Tush Bannon was in the way. It wasn’t anything he knew or anything he had done. He was just there, in the wrong spot at the wrong time, and the fact that he was a nice guy with a nice wife and three nice kids didn’t mean one scream in hell to the jackals who had ganged together to pull him down.

And they got him, crushed him to hamburger, and walked away counting their change. But one thing they never could have figured...

Tush Bannon was Travis McGee’s friend.

This is the story not of a hero but of a heel. As such, it’s a bit out of line for an Adventure yarn, where the main character usually turns out to be a pretty good joe, at least in the end. Maybe we should label it an off-the-trail story, a phrase that has been used in this magazine for many years to describe an unusual piece of fiction. Anyway, it was too good to pass up — hero or heel, we thought you’d want to meet the inimitable Major Stacey Barnett.

This is something that happens at least once to every attractive girl. But in this case she had a good reason for accepting the invitation.

To the tough tax man the lovely widow was fair game. But he scented money — not murder.

Bill Maloney opens the doorway to other worlds, and finds — the Stuff of Dreams!

Some backs are born to glory — some achieve it — but sometimes, in the heart-testing minute before the final gun, only never-quit cleats will run the man down!

He’d been a big shot yesterday — he’d make tomorrow’s headlines. But this was today... the day he had to prove himself to ten gents — who were hell on heroes!

SEVEN TO REMEMBER...

ANDREA — a girl who took everything her lover had to give her, and then took more...

WYATT — a man drowning in his own success, grasping at one final moment of pleasure...

NORRIE — who was so innocent and so trusting, and who was so cruelly used...

HOWIE — who found that your best friend could cut your heart out...

ELLIE — who laughed and laughed, and needed and wanted The Cure...

ALDO — who pursued desire and was the victim of his own triumphs...

and SAM DAVIS, feeling his way through the ghostly corridors of “The Annex,” wondering: is there life here, is there death, is there love?

John D. MacDonald is surely one of the most widely enjoyed writers of his time. With more than 60 books to his credit, and more than 40 million copies of them printed, he has a devoted audience in this country and throughout the world. The words “craftsmanship” and “suspense” occur again and again in critical appraisals of his work. He is truly a masterful storyteller. His fabulously successful TRAVIS McGEE series has run through dozens of printings and reprintings — and there are more on the way. Of the stories in this volume, four are from PLAYBOY, and three have never before been published.

Nowhere this year, we think, will anybody come across a sweeter, gentler, more enchanting short story. This is for reading now — this afternoon or tonight BY JOHN D. MACDONALD.

Harry Varney’s big phony front didn’t help him much — when he rode down a pedestrian.

Harry Varney’s big phony front didn’t help him much — when he rode down a pedestrian.

It's a case of the humanities versus alien efficiency when the emissaries of Strada get through to Earth via a trans-galactic back door!