As I mentioned in one of the comments below, here's the list of Mike Shayne stories I wrote many years ago, interspersed with a few comments about the ones I remember. Some of them I have almost no memory of at all. All these stories were published in MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE under the pseudonym Brett Halliday. Most were 20,000 word novellas, although some were shorter than that and a few pushed 25,000 words. Not all the titles are mine, as the editors sometimes changed them.
“Death in Xanadu”, 12/78 -- my first Shayne, written at the request of editor Sam Merwin Jr.
“Twice as Deadly”, 6/79
“Lady From the Grave”, 9/79
“The Phoenix Gambit”, 12/79
“Murder by the Bay”, 2/80
“Payoff in Blood”, 3/80 -- a kidnapping yarn
“The Bedlam File”, 5/80 -- set in a mental institution, I think
“Murder in Paradise”, 6/80 -- set in Mexico
“Encore for Death”, 7/80
“The Viper Conspiracy”, 8/80 -- the first Shayne of several I did with an espionage angle
“Yesterday’s Angel”, 9/80 -- Shayne's long-dead wife reappears - or does she?
“Mayhem in the Magic City”, 10/80 -- a story set in the 1940s, for a special "Crime in Other Times" theme issue; tells the story of how Shayne's wife died; more espionage, this time of the World War II variety; probably my favorite of the Shayne stories I did
“Killer’s Eve”, 11/80 -- a Hallowe'en story
“All the Faces of Fear”, 12/80 -- set against the background of a circus's winter quarters
“Black Lotus”, 1/81 -- the first story of three to feature a decidedly non-PC villainess, created at the request of editor Charles E. Fritch
“Odds on Death”, 2/81 -- a gambling ship story
“Three Strikes – You’re Dead!”, 3/81 -- a baseball spring training story, of course
“Fit for a Corpse”, 4/81
“The Stalker of Biscayne Bay”, 5/81 -- one of my rare serial killer stories
“Byline for Murder”, 6/81 -- Tim Rourke is framed for the murder of a rival reporter
“Death From the Sky”, 7/81 -- the second Black Lotus story
“Midnight Wind”, 8/81 -- another favorite; the old sinister doings at an isolated motel plot
“Killer’s Cruise”, 9/81 -- murder on a cruise ship, with Livia, myself, and several other authors making cameo appearances
“The Full Moon Means Murder!”, 10/81 -- another Hallowe'en story, this one with a werewolf
“A Cry in the Night”, 11/81 -- the baby found on the doorstep bit
“Death in the Dailies”, 12/81 -- murder on the set of a low-budget horror film
“Beautiful but Dead”, 1/82 -- murder at a beauty pageant, I think
“Doomsday Island”, 2/82 -- the third and final Black Lotus story, with Shayne acting as a secret agent
“Havoc in High Places”, 3/82 -- another favorite; Shayne finds himself trapped with some dangerous characters in a Miami high-rise during a hurricane; havoc ensues
“Deadly Queen”, 4/82 -- murder among world-class chess champions
“The Medici Casket”, 5/82
“The Assassination of Michael Shayne”, 6/82
“Book of the Dead”, 7/82 -- another one featuring cameos by real people
“Deadly Visitor”, 8/82
“Death in Texas”, 9/82 -- set in Corpus Christi
“Murder From Beyond the Grave”, 10/82
“Fishing for Murder”, 12/84 -- my final Shayne story, written as a favor to a friend who wanted to be a character in one of them
I should point out that Livia contributed to the plots and writing of many of these. At least one is mostly her work. It was a good run, but by the time I finished that two-and-a-half year stretch from May '80 to October '82, my brain was pretty much running on fumes. I'm tempted to go back and read some of these, since they'd be almost like new stories to me now. Maybe I'll get around to it one of these days.
11 comments:
I remember some of these pretty well. I probably have most of the magazines somewhere.
I'll have to keep an eye out for these. That's really cool that you have this as part of your writing legacy.
Thanks for listing these. I've only read a few Mike Shayne stories but I would definetely like to pick up a few that you wrote.
Would it be possible to get some of these reprinted or would it violate the Halliday copyright holders?
Juri,
MSMM bought all rights to the Shayne stories, so I don't have any say in them anymore. And at this point I don't know who actually owns the rights to them, since Renown Publications hasn't existed for a long time. I assume the Davis Dresser estate just licensed the Shayne character to Renown and retained the rights to the stories themselves. Whoever has the copyright, it should still be valid.
That said, a few years ago a small press publisher approached me about reprinting some of the Shayne stories from the magazine (not just mine, but some by the other Halliday ghosts, too). I gave him some information and he was going to research the copyrights, but I never heard anything else so I assume he abandoned the project.
I'm thrilled to hear that you wrote some of the Mike Shayne stories. I picked up a bundle of the magazines several months ago. Unfortunately, they are packed away right now, for our move to Idaho at the end of July. It will be a while before I can get into those boxes.
I wonder who owns the rights to the Shayne character now.
I believe Davis Dresser's daughter is still alive and controls the rights to the character.
Mr. Reasoner and Commenters: sorry that my comment has come 17 years too late. I own 156 issues of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazines (of the 337) containing most everything JMR has written there; his 59 stories under "Halliday" or "Reasoner" or "M.R. James." Of those 59, I have read only 19.. but I own 49 of those stories. So, I have my work cut out for me, ha ha.
Let me point your readers to the website, www.Luminist.org/archives/PU/ where you can scroll down to MIKE SHAYNE and download or read 1980 April, 1982 Sept, Nov for free. Mr Reasoner, "The Golden Bhudda Caper" was in Apr 1980. Your fan, Trevor in Cincinnati.
Hi, Trevor. It's good to hear from you! Is my memory playing tricks on me (always a possibility these days) or are you the one who had the Flagler Street website devoted to Mike Shayne? That was a great site. The Internet Archive has some MSMM issues, too, but only one with a Shayne story by me, "Death in Texas" in the 9/82 issue. But they're all worth reading and a couple of them go back to the magazine's early days in the Fifties.
Hello sir. Flagler Street website? Not I. Although I lived in Miami 1971-75 and went to UM. Started reading Shayne novels in 2019 and have never stopped. I have downloaded 54 .pdf files of M Shayne MM issues from the internet. Many are no longer available. I've chosen four of your Shayne stories to read in two weeks.
I've collected ALL the Dennis Lynds and have moved on to the age of Reasoner and Washburn...
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