A stage magician vanishes in the middle of his act, as he is about to be arrested on suspicion of a $1,750,000 securities fraud. Banacek is called in to try to recover the missing money and solve the mystery of the disappearing man.

A charter company jetliner makes an emergency landing at a small desert airstrip, blowing all of its tires and leaving a shaken flight crew. The next morning finds the pilot left guarding the plane dead and the airstrip empty of the immovable aircraft. Enter Banacek - in a chauffeur-driven jeep - to sort out the convolutions of pilots, stewardesses, old business partners and more to learn where the crippled plane has gone.

A small but powerful prototype engine sits sealed in a rotating display case in the middle of a crowded trade-show floor. A power failure turns out the lights for a few seconds, and when the lights return, the rocket engine has vanished. Banacek must beat his competition to the solution before Federal agents step in.

Thoroughbred-owner Katherine Wells finished an interview at the track, then in confidence tells her horse trainer that she is quitting racing and sold her prized thoroughbred for $5,000,000. That after morning workout, the transfer would be official. Before new owner and camera crew, Oxford Dunn starts his quarter run.. yet a different horse finishes - with no time to switch in the "Horse of a Slightly Different Color." It's another impossible puzzle for Banacek.

A one-of-a-kind Greek chalice worth 1.5 million dollars is stolen in front of many witnesses.

A three-million dollar wedding coach, being sent overseas, disappears shortly after being placed into a shipping container and loaded aboard ship, under the watchful eyes of two Boston Insurance Company employees. Enter Banacek, who must figure out the puzzling theft and find the coach before the ship sails to collect his ten percent.

One morning Max - a huge, complex computer system - is missing from the locked, alarmed and guarded building he filled just the night before. Banacek steps in to find out how tons of computer machinery could be sneaked out leaving only bare walls.

"Man in Harmony," a 3-ton, 11-foot tall sculpture is missing at its gala unveiling. The 5-foot pedestal to which it was attached is all that remains to mark the theft. A ransom demand threatening to turn the large stone into gravel unless $500,000 is paid further complicates the case. Working, and competing, with a Boston Insurance Company colleague, Banacek has only two days to find the statue and collect his fee.