Mister Mystery #17

In the underworld, when a debt goes unpaid, there's only one solution: the Executioner, the feared enforcer who keeps gangsters in line with an axe. When gambling addict Charlton Gross can't pay a $200,000 debt to Tony Rocco, he's given two days to raise the money—or face the Executioner's judgment. With his desperate situation closing in and his devoted wife Helen in the dark about his troubles, Charlton must find a way to save himself from the syndicate's most lethal operative.

Henry Smythe is a meek, browbeaten man dominated by his shrewish wife Mabel and his two nagging daughters—they control every aspect of his life, sabotage his few pleasures, and constantly berate him with superstitious warnings and complaints. After years of submission, Henry's breaking point finally arrives, and he calls his family together to show them something he's been working on in secret. This 1954 horror-suspense tale explores what happens when a truly defeated man reaches his limit.

John King, a ruthless Hollywood director obsessed with Academy Awards, believes he's mastered the secret to success: manipulating human emotions to extract perfect performances from his actors. When he exploits a young actress named Linda, making her genuinely fall for him before coldly turning her affection into hatred for his next film, he discovers he may have unleashed something far more dangerous than he bargained for. In "The Gambit," King's dangerous game of emotional manipulation reaches a breaking point as his psychiatrist friend warns him that playing with people's minds carries unpredictable consequences.

In "Yo Ho Ho," a man's meticulously crafted scheme begins to unravel when an old sea curse—long thought harmless—starts to echo in ways he never expected. Written by an unknown hand and illustrated by an unknown artist, this chilling 1954 tale from Mister Mystery #17 unfolds with quiet dread, where the weight of forgotten words proves harder to ignore than any trap.

A desperate man on the brink of ruin walks into a pawn shop to sell his last possession—a watch that once meant everything—and encounters a clerk with an extraordinary offer: half a million dollars in exchange for five years of his life. When Calvin Dorn signs the contract in blood, destiny begins to arrange his ascent to wealth, and he races to reclaim the family he abandoned in his darkest hour. But supernatural bargains rarely come without a price, and his countdown has already begun.