"A dark, twisted tale of sex, drugs, and murder, all woven into the zeitgeist of our nation's capital." —Edgar Award–winning author I.S. Berry1986, Virginia. Bennett Wilder is just going through the motions, scraping by in a dead-end job and numb to his wife's latest affair. Then he sees the hitchhiker, an attractive young woman who needs a ride to Washington, DC. Flirty and spontaneous, she's just what Bennett needs to snap him out of his dull ro...

Here’s the complete lineup—NOVELSMurder of a Plaster Saint, by Robert Wallace [Phantom Detective series]The Phantom Detective—masked pulp hero—makes his Black Cat Weekly debut.Velda, by Ron Miller [Velda Bellinghausen, P.I. series]The stunning conclusion of the first Velda novel! (Part 2 of 2.)SOLVE-IT-YOURSELF MYSTERY“A Bri...

Issue #254 falls solidly into the “great read” category: New tales by Tom Milani (thanks to Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken), Paula Messina, Viviana De Cecco, Kevin R. Tipple, R.L. Farr, and of course Ron Miller (with a new Velda, P.I. story), plus an original solve-it-yourself puzzler from Hal Charles are the core. But we also have classic shorts from Lester del Rey, Joseph J. Millard, and Evelyn Goldstein—plus a rare Golden Age mystery from British master J.S. Fletcher.Here’s th...