Category: action fiction

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’, 4th 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), 4th of 17 stories in BM

~ Carroll John Daly, “The Amateur Murderer”, 45th 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’, 1st 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), 13h 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

June 1926 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

June 1926 issue

cover art by Fred Craft

better image than previously posted

~Tom Curry, “The House of Jewels”, 8th of 39 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Forget ‘Em All”, 9th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘The Phantom Crook’, 16th of 99 stories in BM

~ Cecil F. Hilleary, “The Lost Bullet”, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Frederick Jackson, “Risky Whiskey”, author’s only appearance in BM

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Black Burton Sits In”, 2nd of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, 2nd of 39 stories in BM

~ Colin Martins, “Ho-o-o-o for Tango!”, 1st of 2 stories in BM

~ Ralph E. Renaud, “Telling the Cock-eyed World”, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Henry S. Whitehead, “Gahd Laff”, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Jenny Meets the Boys”, ‘border air-story’, 3rd of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

January 1928 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

January 1928 issue

cover art by Fred Craft

~ Louis Victor Eytinge, “When Fingerprints Lied”, ‘Paul Prentiss, former pete-man (safe blower)’, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Westmoreland Gray, “Guns of Silence”, ‘Vic Cammack, reporter, & Jerry the Yegg, crook, vs. bandits’, last of 3 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “Dynamite”, 3rd 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), 34th of 51 stories in BM

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “The Faith o’ MacGown”, 1st of 3 with Rio Kennedy of the Customs Service in Santo Domingo, 11th of 39 stories in BM

~ Carl L. Martin, “Pore Pickin’s”, Deputy Lon Havens, Drew County, Bayou country, ‘bank robbery & Mississippi River flood, dialect used’, 2nd of 6 in BM

~ Frederick L. Nebel, “The Penalty of the Code”, ‘the code of silence’, reprinted in Street Wolf (Altus Press, 2014), 10 of 67 stories in BM

~ William S. Newell, “A Man Reforms”, ‘Louse’ Eller, a punk criminal, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Stephen Payne, “The Fifth Loop”, ‘Western‘, 1st of 2 stories in BM

~ L.R. Sherman, “The Man Who Would Not Quit”, ‘Far North’, 2nd of 3 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “The Sky’s the Limit”, last of 7 Chuck Reddington story; ‘airplanes & machineguns’, 17th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

May 1925 issue ~ cover art by O.K. Uzzell

May 1925 issue

better image than previously posted

cover art by O.K. Uzzell

~ John Nicholas Beffel, “Finger-Prints”, ‘article – can fingerprints be forged?; this prompts answer from Dashiell Hammett’, June 1925 issue, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Painless Extraction”, 3rd of 10, ‘Bob Larkin in Mexico’, 6th of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Scorched Face”, ‘the Op, called here ‘The Continental Sleuth’ by ed.’, [11th of 22], 16th of 45 stories in BM

~ Lillian W. Keenan, “The Lost Glove Needle”, ‘described as ‘shrewd detective work’”, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “An Adventure in Diamonds”, 9th of 10 with ‘Captain Valentine, that ‘attractive European scalawag’, adventurer and rascal’, 25th of 29 stories in BM

~ Charles Somerville, “The Tracking of a Fiend”, 40th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 41st of 49 total articles in BM

~ J. Paul Suter, “The Uncomfortable Buddha”, 5th of 15 stories with The Reverend McGregor Daunt, ‘clergyman by profession and detective by choice’, 8th of 19 appearances in BM

~ L. King Tichenor, “A Thousand Dollar Bill”, 1st of 5 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop