February 2026 – SMB Noir

June 1932 issue ~ cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

June 1932 issue

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

~ Thomson Burtis, “They Don’t Shake Hands in Arkansas”, ‘Slats Kirke in Detroit’, 4^th of 6 appearances in BM

~ Paul Cain, “Velvet”, ‘Kells & Granquist; part 3 of Fast One’, reprinted in The Complete Slayers (2011 Centipede Press), Black Mask: The Complete Stories (2013 Mysterious Press), Lead Party: The Complete Fiction Works of Paul Cain (Steeger, 2024), 4^th of 17 stories in BM

~ Carroll John Daly, “The Amateur Murderer”, 45^th of 53 with Race Williams, part 3 of 4, published as a novel in 1933, reprinted in If Death is Respectable: The Collected Hard-boiled Stories of Race Williams, v.4 (Altus, 2018), 57th of 71 appearances in BM

~ Norbert Davis, “Reform Racket”, ‘Dan Stiles; one-time gunman’, 1^st of 13 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Cooking Crooks”, 44th of 73 with Ed Jenkins, ‘with Norma Gay’, 61st of 99 stories in BM

~ Horace McCoy, “The Golden Rule”, 11th of 14 Frost stories ‘Capt. Jerry Frost, Texas (Air) Ranger’, reprinted in Headfirst into Hell: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Jerry Front, Vol. 2 (Steeger, 2025), 13^h of 17 stories in BM

~ Henry Wallace Phillips, “A Touch of Nature”, Western mystery, last of 8 with Red Saunders who ‘fights a “wild man in kilts”’, last of 12 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

November 1940 issue

November 1940

better image than previously posted

January 1946 issue ~ cover art by Gloria Stoll

January 1946 issue

cover art by Gloria Stoll

Spring 1947 issue

Spring 1947

October 1939 issue ~ cover art by Alex Redmond

October 1939

cover art by Alex Redmond

May 1949 issue

May 1949 issue

cover art attributed to both Norman Saunders and Peter Stevens

~ Ed Barcelo, “Suicidal Slay Ride”, author’s only appearance in BM

~ Bruno Fischer, “Five O’Clock Menace”, ‘1^st-person narrator in barber’s chair, reprinted, The Hard-Boiled Detective (1977)’, 4^th of 5 stories in BM

~ John P. Foran, “Copper, Come Back to Me”, 1^st of 2 stories in BM

~ John D. MacDonald, “Murder in One Syllable”, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 4^th of 6 stories in BM

~ Robert Martin, “Death’s Glass Slipper”, 2nd of 6 stories with ‘Dr. Clint Colby, medical detective’, 4^th of 8 stories in BM

~ Marian O’Hearn, “Diary of a Deadly Dame”, 1^st of 2 stories in BM

~ Fergus Truslow, “Pardon My Poison Platters”, ‘the record business’, last of 6 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop