Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, March 1962

This March 1962 issue of *Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine* features "The Death Gimmick" by Charles W. Runyon, a novella about Mort Carlson, an unscrupulous con artist and mechanical sabotage expert who murders Morgan McClain in Miami Beach and assumes his identity to escape the syndicate. Posing as McClain, he travels to the Windward Islands to reunite with McClain's uncle and investigate the mysterious trouble mentioned in the uncle's letter. Upon arrival in the fishing village of Bennerie, Carlson discovers his hotel bed rigged with a collapsing frame designed to dump rats onto him—an obvious trap. The narrative establishes Carlson's background as a thrill-seeking delinquent with expertise in gimmicks and mechanical murder devices. The issue also includes a Mike Shayne novelet titled "Murder Strikes Out" by Brett Halliday, plus short stories by Arthur Porges, Ed Lacey, Thomas Calvert McCleary, Lew Lipton, Richard Hardwick, and Pierre Audemars.