Exit Before Midnight

A Collection of Murder Tales from Patrick Quentin...



The Jack of Diamonds: Starner had something on each of them. So Vanderloon sent them all an invitation that included the handwritten phrase "to meet and to murder Mr. Joseph Starner." The object is to kill him and make it look like an accident. But, of course, the best laid plans often go awry.



Exit Before Midnight: It's New Year's Eve, and the stockholders of Leland & Rowley are about to sign over an agreement to merge with the Pan-American Dye Combine. On her way to the meeting, secretary Carole Thorne finds a typed message: "... if the merger is carried, I have decided to murder several of you..." She thinks it's a practical joke-until their attorney becomes the first victim!



Another Man's Poison: When Dr. Knudsen collapses dead during an operation, it looks like someone had poisoned his coffee. And only one person could have done it. With his back against the wall, it's up to young intern Oliver Lord to prove his innocence.



The Gypsy Warned Him: Gunner's Mate Lew Warren is on an 8-hour leave and decides to hit the first bar he sees. There he meets a little man who tells him about a gypsy, "the best fortune teller in New York," and even offers to pay the gypsy himself to tell Warren's fortune. How could he know that he had just fallen into a subtle trap that would end in murder?