A quartet of kidnappers make the mistake of hiring Da Silva as their driver Chico Xavier needs cash. His father has cut off his allowance, and for a university student with expensive taste-and an even more expensive girlfriend-this is a death sentence. And so he and his friends arrange to kidnap one of their school chums: a fellow dilettante who lets himself be taken in exchange for a cut of the ransom. Two days of criminal behavior, Chico thinks,...

A small-town sheriff investigates a bizarre disappearance Nobody could blame Charley Crompton for wanting to kill his wife. For years she's made his life hell, but poor old Charley has always been too meek to stand up for himself. One night they have a terrible fight, loud enough for Mrs. Williams next door to hear every word, and the argument is followed by eerie silence. The next thing Mrs. Williams knows, Charley is digging up the peach tree in...

A New York cop goes after an escaped prisoner with murder on his mind. For a hit-and-run with a stolen car, Lenny Cervera bought himself five to ten in Sing Sing. When his sentence comes down, this two-bit thug vows revenge on everyone who helped put him there. He swears to kill the judge, the district attorney, and the cop who cuffed him: Lieutenant Clancy, the toughest detective in the NYPD. But Clancy pays him no mind. Every hood talks tough when...

Captain José Da Silva has the daunting task of finding a murderer. Hired by the Brazilian Foreign Office, Da Silva sets out to end these jungle killings, but doesn't quite have all the facts. When Agent Wilson shows him one of the victims--not all of him, just his shrunken head--Da Silva realizes that this murder case isn't as open-and-shut as it seems. Now he must investigate, evading the powerful magic and numerous mysteries of the Amazon jungle....

On a transatlantic cruise, three elderly gentlemen have the adventure of a lifetime When the captain of the SS Sunderland sees the three grey-haired passengers, he does not expect them to cause any trouble. He is mistaken. If he knew how much trouble they will cause, he'd likely leap over the railing and swim for shore. Carruthers, Simpson, and Briggs are three of the most dangerous men in the world. Founders of the British Mystery Writers Club,...

At an international summit, Da Silva searches for an assassin Off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, a freighter battles the waves. The steward has been stricken with appendicitis, but the sea is too rough for the ship to dock. A coast guard helicopter brings him to shore, where he is put in an ambulance and rushed the hospital. But when the ambulance arrives, the patient has disappeared. He was never sick, and he is not a sailor. He is an assassin, and...

A search for an American's missing brother draws Da Silva into the jungle In a blighted stretch of the Amazon, three men have come to blow up a bridge. Just before they complete their mission, one of them turns on the others, gunning one down and burying the other with the force of the explosion. He is stepping into his getaway plane when he notices that the first man's body is gone. It doesn't matter, he thinks. An injured man could not last a day...

To repay a wartime debt, a master smuggler ventures out into the open. The customs agent's eyes go wide when he reads the passport. It is Kek Huuygens, the notorious smuggler who has grown rich making border guards look like fools. Today he is returning from Switzerland, a box of chocolates packed in his briefcase. The guard confiscates the chocolates, which he is certain must contain diamonds, but he lets Huuygens keep the wrapper as proof of his...

To stop a crime wave, a San Francisco cop investigates a ring of smugglers Homicide lieutenant James Reardon is raising a martini to his lips when the call comes in from headquarters. He is late for a meeting and the chief is furious. The cocktail, and Reardon's girlfriend, will have to wait. The meeting is a waste of time-a federal agent repeating platitudes about the dangers of drug smuggling-and Reardon is grateful when a call comes in on the radio,...

To save a fellow cop, a detective is asked to free a hardened thug  For most of his life, Pop Holland has carried a .38 revolver. This afternoon, when he retired from the San Francisco police department, he said goodbye to the gun forever. But when he steps into his car on the way to his retirement party, he feels the familiar shape of a .38 pressed to his neck. The gun cuts into his skin, and blood runs down his back. Another man gets into the car,...