Mister Mystery #7

Rod Crenshaw and pilot Reese Bitner crash-land their crippled spaceship on the hostile jungles of Venus, only to discover the planet is inhabited by grotesque brain-bat creatures that can possess and reanimate dead bodies. Crenshaw must fight for survival against an ever-multiplying alien threat as the infected ship hurtles back toward Earth—but victory may come at a terrible price he never anticipated.

Ernest Barth, a meek bookkeeper who loves the forest creatures more than people, finds himself drawn into a supernatural pact when an elfin girl from the woods enlists his help against John Hackman, the ruthless lumber magnate who owns both the swamp and Ernest's labor. Torn between his gentle nature and the forest's desperate pleas, Ernest must choose whether to protect the wild things he understands—or remain complicit in their destruction. What unfolds is a tale of magic, manipulation, and a reckoning in the cypress country that blurs the line between justice and vengeance.

Warren "Fingers" Delong swears he'll never face the electric chair, but a murder conviction and death sentence seem to seal his fate—until he seizes a desperate chance to escape during a trial, betraying fellow criminal Nick Pauley in the process. His breakout triggers a manhunt that becomes the least of his problems when the underworld closes in, hunting the man who turned informer. Delong discovers that beating the chair might mean sacrificing everything else.

On the eve of his wedding, Al Craig, a university professor obsessed with occult studies, ignores his fiancée Joan Arlington's pleas to focus on their upcoming ceremony—until a mysterious door appears in his study, pulling him into a strange ancient world where Joan seems trapped as a woman named Sigrid awaiting ritual sacrifice. As Al finds himself mistaken for a war god and swept into a violent battle, he desperately tries to rescue Joan and find his way back home before the door closes forever.