The Body in the Bed / The Body Beautiful - Softcover

Bill S. Ballinger (Introduction By John Bennett)

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798886010701

Publisher: Stark House Press, 2024

Synopsis

THE BODY IN THE BED: Barr Breed doesn’t want to take the case at first. When Mr. Gibbs comes to him with a story about finding his mistress strangled in her bed, and not wanting to go the cops about it, Breed turns him right down. He doesn’t want to get involved in murder. But Gibbs persuades him to take a look at the murder scene and keep the cops away for 24 hours. Convinced of Gibbs’ innocence, Breed begins to cover his client’s tracks. Then someone tries to push him into traffic. And not long after, Gibbs himself is gunned down. Breed is the thick of it now. And between the thug who’s shadowing him and the cops who’re after him, this case could just be his last. THE BODY BEAUTIFUL: When Barr Breed is introduced to showgirl Coffee Stearns, it’s lust at first sight. But she plays hard to get. In fact, just as Breed is figuring that she doesn’t like men at all, she changes her tune. That night he decides to catch her show. Coffee she is one of the nearly nude golden girls that swing from cages above the actors below. But as soon as the cages begin to rise, there is a flash of light and Coffee falls forward out of her cage and into the orchestra pit―with a knife in her back! Breed immediately goes into action, but there’s nothing he can do for her. So he sets out to find out who murdered her―and why―and takes on the most dangerous case of his career.

About this title

About the Author

Bill Sanborn Ballinger was born on March 13, 1912, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and was educated at the University of Wisconsin. He worked in radio and advertising in the early 1940s. Ballinger wrote 81 radio scripts, then turned to writing novels in 1948, eventually producing about 30 books, including the Joaquin Hawks series. He received the Geneva Grand Master Award for Portrait in Smoke and was nominated for an Edgar in 1958 for The Longest Second. Ballinger also wrote at least 150 teleplays, including scripts for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Ironside. In the late 1970s, he became an associate professor of writing at the California State University Northridge in Los Angeles. Ballinger passed away on March 23, 1980, in Tarzana, California.

Edition details

• Publisher: Stark House Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798886010701
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256