A respected investment advisor has a double life as a mystery writer and becomes involved in the real murder of a shady client.

A high-society gent has a secret life - he writes murder mysteries and hangs out with the police attempting to solve crimes. This causes him no end of problems when his wife wants to know about his little disappearances and exceptionally late nights out.—John Vogel <[email protected]>

Francis Warren, a respected, upscale investment advisor, carries on a double life as a mystery writer aided by his faithful chauffeur/secretary Wilfred without the knowledge of his beautiful wife, her suspicious mother, and his society clients. When a shady character tries to coerce Warren into converting hot diamonds into cold cash, he balks at the scheme, and the client ends up as an even colder corpse on his yacht. The none-too--bright police don't believe it's murder, but when the whodunit writer sets out to prove it, he becomes involved with an aging burlesque queen much to the chagrin of Mrs. Warren and his mother-in-law.—[email protected]

Socialites Agatha Archer and her daughter, Rita Warren, are incredulous that author F.X. Pettijohn would have the nerve to send the servants of every member of their social group, the Thursday Club, autographed copies of his latest murder mystery book, Footsteps in the Dark: Murder in the Tuesday Club, the story which is obviously loosely based on people within that group. If they can locate Pettijohn, which they know is a pseudonym, they plan to sue for slander. What they don't know is that Pettijohn is actually Francis Warren, Rita's husband, a mild-mannered investment counselor with his own firm by day, he who writes and researches his books during his lunch hours and late evenings with his driver, Wilfred, who also acts as his right hand man and typist. The only other people who know about the connection between him and the book are the police, Police Inspector Charles Mason and Detective Hopkins - "Hoppy" - who only know him as "Frank" Pettijohn doing research with their help and not as Warren. Mason and Hoppy dislike Pettijohn's lead character, Detective Lucien Sylvester, as the police are often portrayed as bumbling compared to super sleuth Sylvester. Warren aims to test his own sleuthing skills when one of his potential clients is found dead, he believing it to be murder. The victim is Leopold Fissue, a diamond importer who wanted Warren to help liquidate his diamond assets. Warren, as Pettijohn and further largely undercover, takes on this murder investigation largely to show up the police. Warren has to avoid being detected by anyone who knows him as Warren and not Pettijohn let alone keep his cover, but as he gets closer to the truth, he may put his own life in danger, not only at the hands of the killer, but also and the hands of the police who may believe that he knows a little too much not to be involved in the murder himself.—Huggo