Crime SuspenStories #24

In "Double-Crossed," a traveling salesman named David Volney finds himself mistaken for the wealthy Edwin Jordon—so perfectly alike that even Jordon’s estranged wife begins to fall for him. As David contemplates taking Jordon’s life to claim his fortune and new identity, the truth of Jordon’s past catches up with him in a twist neither man could have foreseen.

In Quebec, Bart’s secret affair with Lita takes a deadly turn when they murder her husband, Lloyd, burying him beneath frozen ice with the hope the spring thaw will carry his body out to sea. Years later, after Lita inherits Lloyd’s fortune and marries Bart, his guilt begins to unravel him—haunted by visions of Lloyd’s rotting face trapped in ice. When Lita takes him on an ocean cruise to ease his mind, their ship collides with an iceberg, and they find the very face they thought buried, staring back at them from the frozen depths.

In "Food for Thought," a desperate miner, after stealing thousands in cash from the payroll office, fakes a gas leak to drive his coworkers away and hide the loot deep in the mine. Trapped when the mine collapses, he’s buried for a week—forced to confront a grim survival choice as hunger drives him to consider eating the very money that doomed him.

In "More Blessed to Give..." from Crime SuspenStories #24 (1954), Jo and her husband, after decades of marriage, reach a breaking point—each deciding the other must die to end their shared misery. As they each set elaborate traps in the anniversary cake and wine, their mutual betrayal unfolds in a chilling game of sabotage, each one outmaneuvered by the other’s hidden design.