When a body is discovered dumped alongside the merry-go-round at an amusement park, clues (including a phone number on an old matchbook cover) lead back to the elusive millionaire Emory Flood. Burke is thwarted in his attempts to speak to Flood by the top three men in the Flood empire. Meanwhile, Burke and Tim come to the aid of an elderly woman who is also trying to see Flood, and interview three lovely starlets who are being ""supported"" by Flood (two of whom hate the man, while the third definitely strikes romantic sparks with Burke). Until Burke can identify the dead man, discover the true scene of the crime and locate Flood, he can't find the killer. A photo of Robert Mitchum reveals the clue which proves that the crime was based on a case of mistaken identity.

Promoter Harris Crown is killed when the car he is driving goes off a cliff. Burke soon discovers that all the brake fluid had been drained and that the car belonged to Crown's wife (a race car enthusiast) who is involved in a charity benefit and ""involved"" with the benefit's choreographer, who in turn is being kept by a wealthy (and jealous) society matron. Other suspects include Crown's strapped-for-cash brother and his greedy wife, and Crown's current mistress. Burke is assisted in his search for the killer by a gossip columnist and a shop owner (who takes a sudden shine to Burke, until she finds that he's a ""poor"" cop).

Hemingwayesque novelist Julian Buck is found dead and Burke checks out the guests at his funeral: his publisher, a former boxer, an ex-lover (who he ""traded"" for a plot), a bartender, a crippled university professor, and a glamorous blonde, all of whom have been used in the past by Buck as fodder for his plots. The manuscript of his latest novel (also based on facts from Buck's life) probably will contain the vital clue that will lead to the murderer.

At the opening of The Debonair Key Club, a Playboy-like nightclub/restaurant, Debonair Magazine founder Alex Debbs is found stabbed. The suspects are all connected in some way with the Debonair empire, both the club and the magazine: Debbs' main business partner, an embittered cartoonist, a swinging joke writer, a blackmailed princess, a folk guitarist, one of the Key Club girls, and a reclusive heiress. After an attack on Tim, another murder and the breaking of ""unbreakable"" alibis, Burke solves the case.

The Grand Duke, Maximilian Karol Alexandrei Kadarian, collapses at a banquet. The Grand Duke was famous locally as phony royalty, who owned a fabulous emerald necklace, now missing. The suspects include his former wife, his secretary, the owners of the banquet hall (two former vaudevillians), the ghostwriter of his autobiography, a ""reformed"" safecracker, another Russian noble now working as a director, and the mysterious and elusive ""Charlie Prince"".

A rose-covered cottage is the scene for the death of a seemingly ordinary housewife. Burke and Tim (who is contemplating settling down with his current girlfriend) soon discover that all is not what it seems in suburbia. The dead woman's husband, her totally gaga neighbor, a stripper with a boa constrictor, a flustered physician, several predatory landladies, a tennis bum, a couple of wigs, and the surly head of the Burglary Division all help to turn what at first seemed like just a slip in the bathtub into one of Burke's more complicated cases.

One of the riders at a fashionable fox hunt must have bludgeoned wealthy W. H. O. IV (pronounced ""Who Four"") to death with a horseshoe. The suspects in the Hunt Club include an old flame of Burke's and her arrogant husband (who never stops needling Burke), a nouveau riche Texan, and a ""little old lady from Pasadena"". Last but not least is the dead man's butler, who may have more money than his master. And what about the sexy Prudence, who may or may not provide a clue or an alibi? Burke finally discovers that the killer may have clubbed the ""wrong"" victim.

A notorious homewrecker is discovered dead in a mud bath at a fashionable spa. Burke soon learns that every other guest at the spa, including the owner, had a strong motive for murder. The strongest case is against the woman whose husband might have been planning on divorcing her to marry the victim. A movie starlet, the best dressed woman in the U.S., a millionairess and her aunt/companion, and the spa's owner also need to be carefully watched. Even after Burke is viciously attacked, he puts himself in danger again in order to smoke out the real killer.

The co-owner of a fashion house is killed in an elevator collapse that may not have been an accident. Les is convinced that it is the work of a madman, since no one could have determined who would be in the elevator. In the midst of battles between the other owner and the company's chief designer, the tantrums of the designer's spoiled daughter, the problems of an elderly seamstress, the divorce plans of the victim's less-than grieving widow, the industrial espionage of a rival, and one real fancy ""floating crap game"", Burke thinks he has the case solved, until it is determined that the victim was dead before the elevator crashed, struck down by a strangely shaped blunt instrument. A military insignia provides the final clue to the case.

Burke goes cowboy at a tourist-style Old West town, after the hanging of Emerson Cartwheel at a coin auction. The clue is a valuable rare coin used to kill the victim, but before Burke can investigate, he's tossed in the hoosegow by the local honorary (and very lovely) female sheriff of Epitaph Flats. After a dramatic jail break, with an assist from Henry, Burke and his crew question the town drunk, one of the ""gunslingers"" in the Wild West tourist show, the victim's business rival, the lady blacksmith and a very Brooklynese ""Native American"". Soon real bullets start flying and the whole case ends in a barroom free-for-all.

Wealthy Lenore is blown away by a shotgun blast while sailing on a barge in her pool, dressed as Cleopatra, and is discovered by one of the men she has befriended from the local mission. Wealthy after several marriages, but coming from hillbilly stock, the victim was planning to change her will. Was the killer her only surviving ex-husband, her sexually repressed sister, her favorite cousin or his ""down-home"" girlfriend, or the shady rival businessman who's planning on marrying off his daughter to the victim's heir? A whole flock of chickens provide a vital clue.

The lead singer in a sister trio act is poisoned. Both the surviving sisters hated the victim, but others had motive as well: the nightclub owner, the trio's former arranger, the girls' agent, their stepfather, and a real estate agent who had been involved with two of the sisters. After one of the suspects is attacked and brutally beaten, Tim is nearly run down by a speeding car and another suspect is murdered. Burke finally discovers the solution to the crime at a sanitorium.

Burke attends the opening night of ""Hamlet"" and later discovers that someone has arranged for the star, Roland Trivers, NOT ""to be"". The suspects include the arrogant director, the actress playing Gertrude, ""Polonius"" (who is in the process of rewriting all of Shakespeare's plays), the stage manager, and a surly Method actor who is chasing the current Ophelia (now missing). The plot darkens when the story of the death of the previous Ophelia is discovered. After yet another murder, Burke takes over a role in the production and puts himself at risk of being run through in order to trap the killer.