
cover art by David Berger

1966 Signet paperback original
pen name of E. Howard Hunt
Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. (October 9, 1918 – January 23, 2007) was an American intelligence officer and writer. Hunt served for many years as a CIA officer. Hunt, with G. Gordon Liddy and others, was one of the Nixon White House “plumbers” — a secret team of operatives charged with fixing “leaks.“ Hunt, along with Liddy, engineered the first Watergate burglary, and other undercover operations for Nixon. In the ensuing Watergate Scandal, Hunt was convicted of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison.
His CIA superiors thought being a writer of spy fiction was a good cover.

cover art by Fred Craft
~ Tom Curry, “Under Cover”, DeVrite, NYPD undercover ‘secret agent’, 1st of 7, subtitled ‘The Receiver’, 20th of 39 stories in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Yellow Shadows, 19th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, in Chinatown with Helen Chadwick and Ngat T’oy; “headnote to story provides valuable data (background)”, 29th of 99 stories in BM
~ Dashiell Hammett, “The 19th Murder”, last of 4 Continental Op stories that will go together to make up Red Harvest (Knopf hc, 1929), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 35th of 51 stories in BM
~ Charles T. Hickey, “Left Helps the Cops”, ‘Lefty McRae, crook’, author’s only story in BM
~ Victor Shaw, “The Tommy-Knocker”, Dan Craig & hard rock mining, 2nd with Craig, 3rd of 5 stories in BM
~ David Thibault, “The Contract”, ‘Louisiana lumber swamps in Mississippi Delta, Irish dialect’, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Everett H. Tipton, “Leather Mask and Cowhide Vest”, ‘Western’, 2nd of 7 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Soft Goods”, ‘Little Bennie, a hood, & Charlie Harmer, detective, in Center City’, 18th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[cover updated 1/22/26]

1933 Doubleday Doran advance reading copy

1948 Avon reprint, 1st paperback edition
cover art by Ann Cantor
Fast One was Cain’s sole novel
Chandler termed it the “high point in the ultra hard-boiled manner”

cover art by Victor Olsen

1978 Southern Illinois University Press
an entry in their “Lost American Fiction” series

1980 Popular Library 1st print reissue
cover art by Jin Campbell

1987 Black Lizard reissue
cover art by Kirwin

February 2012 Centipede hardcover
cover art by Ron Lesser
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[updated 6/26/25]