We figured him for a phoney, this guy who was cutting in on my girl. We didn’t plan anything too rough — just rough enough so he’d chicken out on her.

If you’ve faced shell fire, football’s easy — should be, that is!

The Howler was a nice boss, but he earned his nickname. He’d stand in the middle of his big restaurant kitchen, flapping his arms and screaming, while the help waited for him to burst. Noisy? You’d be noisy, too, if you knew what he knew! You’d scream bloody murder!

Whitey Edison had grown a little too old for the racing game, that’s all — or so Bob Oliver believed. But sooner or later the kid had to learn the truth.

Martin Rhode, a distinguished soldier of one of Earth’s warring states, has been unwittingly captured by aliens after innocently exploring a hole caused by what was perceived to be enemy warfare. As it turns out, the aliens are being pursued by natives of an enemy planet and they have sought refuge on Earth. They do not plan on staying long, however, but actually intend to lure their rivals in so that they may all be destroyed along with everyone else on the planet, by a special weapon they are at that moment creating. Martin Rhode appeals to the aliens, and they allow him to send a warning to all Earth people that it will soon be the end of the world.

At first disbelieving, warring states and individuals afterwards realize their mistakes and immediately reconcile with each other, and make plans on solving the imminent problem that they face — that of expelling the alien presence in their midst!

Also includes the stories: ALL OUR YESTERDAYS, DELUSION DRIVE, THE GREAT STONE DEATH, MINION OF CHAOS, COMMON DENOMINATOR, THE MINIATURE.

Behind every man of adventure stands a woman. She can inspire him to reach the stars, or she can chain him with doubt and fear and indecision. And if he is a 500-mile-an-hour pilot, she can literally worry him to his death.

He knew he had one more race left in him; he was good for one more crack at the Indianapolis classic. But he needed a car. To get one, he had to amuse Bander son — who thought death was fun.

This volume is the nineteenth annual collection of the best stories from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Every year since the anthology’s inception, it has been acknowledged No. 1 in its field, and this current one is no exception. The stories here range from pure detection to suspense, horror and psychological grue. Regardless of the reader’s taste, he will find a fulfilling and diverting repast offered by these writers: John D. MacDonald, James M. Ullman, L. E. Behney, Michael Gilbert, George Sumner Albee, Helen Nielsen, Roy Vickers, Borden Deal, Fletcher Flora, Avram Davidson, William O’Farrell, Norman Daniels, Hugh Pentecost, Victor Canning, Helen McCloy, John Reese, Holly Roth, Edward D. Hoch, Gerald Kersh, Fred A. Rodewald & J. F. Peirce, Lawrence Treat, Stanley Ellin.

...is the author of more than 500 short stories and some 50 novels, including the bestselling Travis McGee series. Added together, the number of his books is now approaching the astonishing total of 30 million printed copies.

Few authors in history have been as prolific as John D. MacDonald, and few have been as highly praised by the critics. The SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE has called him “one of our best craftsmen”; the CHICAGO TRIBUNE has called him “a masterful writer”; and THE NEW YORK TIMES once dubbed him “the John O’Hara of the crime-suspense story.”

“He is a master of plot and construction,” said the LOS ANGELES TIMES, “discerning in characterization, able to bring alive the dimension of mood and setting.”

Only three times in my life have I heard as much horn as Buck blew those nights. We didn’t know why until it was all over.

At bay against his dissolving skies he fought — the last champion of a star-spanning dynasty which never existed — save to die!

“You’re back in the bushes, kid, with one of your spikes in a rookie’s grave and one still touching a big league rubber. You can go back either way — but one is called a comeback!”

Sometimes, when it’s goal and seconds to go, a bruised and battered eleven who’ve been playing by the coach’s charts have got to throw away every play — and gamble for paydirt on the one called heart!

In that precise, antiseptic, post-war society, thirteen hell-raising old space-warriors were as obsolete as brass knuckles in a debate... and somewhat more of a nuisance.

So brass-bands played, and brass-hats brayed... and a coffin ship left for the stars...

A new novelette introducing a new detective, from the creator of Travis McGee, is indeed a mystery event. Duke Rhoades is a private consultant who, like McGee, specializes in recovering stolen goods. He looks just a bit like John Wayne and, he shares McGee’s liking for beautiful women.

He had waited five years behind bars, thinking of nothing but the rookie cop whose lies had put him there. Now, at last, he was free.

Ben Morrow had come a long way to see this model, this Helen MacLane. Now she’d vanished, and Ben was caught between the cops and a mob of tough gangsters in a red-hot woman hunt.