Summary: Two short novels, originally published separately, but apparently judged by the publisher not to be worth reprinting separately.

Wife or death is a sordid story about a husband's efforts to determine which of his several close friends may have run off with his stereotypically unfaithful wife, killed her, and concealed the murder. Hampered by the suspicions of the police, he nevertheless manages to deduce what happened and to confront the killer.

The golden goose concerns a family of stupid, shiftless bums. The patriarch, Slater O'Shea, managed to marry and then outlive a very rich woman, and every relative within driving distance has been living in his house, on the largesse that he inherited, for years. His will provides that the fortune will be divided equally among an even larger group of distantly related spongers, and Slater expects the unwillingness of the in-house parasites to share with these others to keep him alive as long as the money holds out. Alas, he is poisoned anyway, presumably by one of the colorful residents. The least unsympathetic of them ultimately discovers who did it. The solution is as contrived and ridiculous as the setup.