One Night With Nora

Mike Shayne #23

by Brett Halliday, Robert McGinnis (Illustrator)

A naked intruder leads Mike Shayne to one of the strangest cases of his career

Mike Shayne is never surprised to wake up with a woman in his bedroom--unless she's a stranger. The private investigator is dozing when he hears someone creep through the door, undress, and slip into bed. When he turns on the light, the lady is just as shocked as he is. Her name is Nora, and she was told she'd find her husband here. Fortunately, she's much better off having found Shayne.

Nora's spouse came to Miami to establish residency, which is the first step toward getting a divorce. By slipping into Shayne's bedroom, she would've spoiled his scheme, but someone gave her the wrong information. Her husband is staying on the floor above. When Nora finally reaches the right room, she finds that the man she's been looking for has been murdered, and her only alibi is a detective who's starting to wish the naked dame had never found her way into his room.

One Night with Nora is the 23rd book in the Mike Shayne Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Genres: Mystery

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

AKA David Dresser
Excerpt from Wikipedia:

Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names

Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nude Women, Hotel Rooms, & Murder

Waking up and finding a scantily clad dead woman in your bed is a staple of detective fiction. In this Mike Shayne mystery, Halliday( the original Brett Halliday- Dresser) twists that staple of detective fiction around and has Shayne wake up with an unknown naked woman entering his room. She's not dead, but of course there's a corpse nearby and strong evidence implicates Shayne. This story is filled with all the breakneck twists and turns of a Shayne story with nearly nonstop action. But the setup is not that of a classic mystery in that Shayne doesn't really have a client (for the most part), is sort of confused as to what is going on, and is sort of swept along by events. Industrial espionage, identity theft, drunken lushes, dirty photographers, and more appear in this story.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than average Mike Shayne. It starts with a naked woman entering his bedroom and then claiming she thought it was her estranged husband’s room. Everyone is lying; the wife, a man claiming to be Mike Shayne, and the daughter of the dead man’s partner. The woman is certainly deadlier than the male in this novel.

[Hellblau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast paced, action packed, page burner. It is a bit convoluted but I think it’s all wrapped up fairly well by the end. Actually I think it does a pretty good job at holding out on the final revelation so it all clicks into place at the end, which is the mark of a well plotted mystery.

[Jim Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this as much as other Mike Shayne mysteries I've read. The plot was too convoluted and not enough action.

[Strawberry Witch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, Nora.

[Kevin Braswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite enjoyable for my first Mike Shayne story... but.... he's a ginger?