The Mike Shayne Mysteries/Michael Shayne series is written by Brett Halliday. The name Brett Halliday is actually a pen name used by Davis Dresser.

The author was born in Chicago and grew up in Texas. At the age of 14, he ran away from home and joined the U.S. 5th Cavalry Regiment. He then worked in Border Patrol before returning to school. He wrote the first Michael Shayne and saw it get rejected by over twenty publishers before being accepted. The series went on to be one of the biggest successes of his career. The character would go on to appear in twelve films, a radio series, and an NBC television series.

Publication Order of Michael Shayne Books

Dividend on Death (1939)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Private Practice of Michael Shayne (1940)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Uncomplaining Corpses (1940)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Tickets for Death (1941)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Bodies Are Where You Find Them (1941)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Case of the Walking / Corpse Came Calling (1943)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder Wears a Mummer's Mask / In a Deadly Vein (1943)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Blood on the Black Market (1943)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Michael Shayne's Long Chance (1944)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder and the Married Virgin (1944)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder is My Business (1945)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Marked For Murder (1945)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Blood on Biscayne Bay (1946)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Counterfeit Wife (1947)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Blood on the Stars / Murder Is a Habit (1948)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
A Taste for Violence (1949)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Call for Michael Shayne (1949)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
This is it, Michael Shayne (1950)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Framed in Blood (1951)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
When Dorinda Dances (1951)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
A Taste for Cognac (1951)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
What Really Happened (1952)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
One Night with Nora / The Lady Came By Night (1953)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
She Woke to Darkness (1954)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Death Has Three Lives (1955)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Stranger in Town (1955)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Blonde Cried Murder (1956)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Heads You Lose (1956)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Weep for a Blonde (1957)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Shoot the works (1957)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder and the Wanton Bride (1958)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Fit to Kill (1958)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Date with a Dead Man (1959)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Target (1959)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Die Like A Dog (1959)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder Takes No Holiday (1960)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Dolls Are Deadly (1960)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Homicidal Virgin (1960)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Killers from the Keys (1961)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder in Haste (1961)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Careless Corpse (1961)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Pay-Off in Blood (1962)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder by Proxy (1962)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Never Kill a Client (1962)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Too Friendly, Too Dead (1962)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Corpse That Never Was (1963)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Body Came Back (1963)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
A Redhead (1964)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Shoot to Kill (1964)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
The Violent World of Michael Shayne (1965)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Nice Fillies Finish Last (1965)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Murder Spins the Wheel (1966)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Armed... Dangerous... (1966)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Mermaid on the Rocks (1967)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Guilty as Hell (1967)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
So Lush, So Deadly (1968)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Lady, be Bad (1969)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Six Seconds to Kill (1970)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Count Backwards to Zero (1971)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
I Come To Kill You (1971)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Caught Dead (1972)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Kill All the Young Girls (1973)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Blue Murder (1973)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Last Seen Hitchhiking (1974)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
At The Point of A .38 (1974)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Million Dollar Handle (1976)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price
Win Some, Lose Some (1976)Best Hardcover PriceBest Paperback PriceBest Kindle Price

If You Like Michael Shayne Books, You’ll Love…

Dividend on Death is the first book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries series. The story begins with Shayne pouring himself a drink when Phyllis Brighton tries to jump out of the window of his apartment. He manages to block her before she does. The woman warned him that she was crazy, but Mike didn’t believe her. Her doctor and stepfather believe that she is suffering from a deadly obsession with her mother. Shayne agrees to help keep Phyllis from killing her mother. That doesn’t stop her mother from dying though, being stabbed in the back with a knife. Everyone thinks Phyllis is guilty, but Shayne isn’t so sure and he sets out to prove it.

Another good book in the series is called The Corpse Came Calling. In this book, Shayne is on the hot seat as he is accused of homicide. An old friend named Jim wants to meet him and heads to his office, but the man is dying as he walks in and dies on the office floor. The police think he did it, but he’ll look to clear his name and find out who really did it.

Order of Books » Characters » Order of Michael Shayne Books

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