The Lying Ladies / The Bandaged Nude / Many a Monster

THE LYING LADIES

A rich woman''s maid is brutally murdered. What do you do if you believe that the young man who has been arrested for the crime is innocent? What do you do when you can see that the sheriff and the prosecutor want to close this case without looking at any of the contradictory evidence? If you''re news reporter Dan Banion, you start digging. After all, a man''s life is on the line. Does Mrs. Hibley, the maid''s employer, know more than she admits to? Could Beth Ridgely, owner of the local cat house, be involved? Is Mrs. Hibley''s daughter, Gail, to be trusted? And what of the murder victim herself? Is she who she appears to be? With the help of a local farmer and a courageous prostitute, Banion risks his life and career to cut through the lies and set things right.

THE BANDAGED NUDE

Dan Banion has returned from the war and moved to San Francisco, writing for the local paper. Today he is sitting in a bar called The Wreck. There used to be a popular nude painting behind the bar, but someone bought it. The artist himself walks in, trying to find out who purchased it. But no one remembers. Later that evening, a dead body is found inside a spaghetti crate and Banion gets a look at the corpse in the morgue. To his surprise, it is the young artist, poisoned to death. Banion starts his own investigation, and tracks down a number of suspicious characters, including the artist''s ex-wife, a jealous lawyer, a shady detective, a vengeful photographer, a distraught girlfriend and a fellow artist. But who has been buying up all the artist''s work-and why? And which one of them wanted him dead?

MANY A MONSTER

There is a killer at large, a fiend who hacks up young women. The police have arrested Rogan Lochmeister and are sure they have the right man. The murder weapon is found in his room along with his bloody clothes. But Rogan is a shell-shocked vet and doesn''t remember a thing. And now he has escaped. The very next victim is Rogan''s sister! She was convinced of his innocence, and had shared her thoughts with Dan Banion right before she met her own bloody end. And Banion is out to prove her right. All the evidence points to Rogan, but Banion finds a lot of suspicious characters in Rogan''s circle of friends, including his old army buddy, his ex-wife, the woman who lived in the upstairs apartment, and his fellow workers at Wyler''s department store. Could one of them have set him up?