cover art by Ernest Chiriacka
below is variant cover of unknown release or origin
Category: anthology
1958 Ace paperback original
2013 Penguin trade paperback
edited by Sarah Weinman, an historical survey of the “Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense”.
authors include Shirley Jackson, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Elizabeth Sanxay Holding, Helen Neilsen, Patricia Highsmith, Margaret Millar and Vera Caspary.
[last cover updated 4/13/25]
The Lethal Sex x 2
1959 Dell paperback original anthology of short stories by women crime writers, an idea initiated by MacDonald
cover painting by Ron Lesser
1962 Fontana edition from the UK
cover art by John L. Baker
better image than previously posted
[post updated 10/8/25]
Killer in the Rain x 6
London: Hamish Hamilton, 1964. First UK Edition, preceding all others. The first collection of these stories.
“Killer in the Rain” (Black Mask Magazine, Jan. 1935)
“The Man Who Liked Dogs” (Black Mask Magazine, Mar. 1936)
“The Curtain” (Black Mask Magazine, Sept. 1936)
“Try the Girl” (Black Mask Magazine, Jan. 1937)
“Mandarin’s Jade” (Dime Detective Magazine, Nov. 1937)
“Bay City Blues” (Dime Detective Magazine, June 1938)
“The Lady in the Lake” (Dime Detective Magazine, Jan. 1939)
“No Crime in the Mountains”(Detective Story Magazine, Sept. 1941)
introduction by Philip Durham
1st Pocket edition, December 1965
June 1973 Bantam reissue
cover art by Tom Adams
July 1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd print
cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie
1979 Pan/Macmillan reissue – cover photo by Robert Golden
[post reworked 7/4/25, 3/1/26]
Pickup on Noon Street x 7
cover art by Tom Dunn
better image than previously posted
cover art by Robert Maguire
1965 Pocket reissue (7th printing, October of ’65)
better image than previously posted
June 1973 Ballantine reissue*
cover art by Tom Adams
1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd print*
cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie
cover art credited to Richard Waldrep
“Pickup On Noon Street” (Detective Fiction Weekly, May 1936, originally titled “Noon Street Nemesis”)
“Smart-Aleck Kill” (Black Mask Magazine, July 1934)
“Guns at Cyrano’s” (Black Mask Magazine, Jan. 1936)
“Nevada Gas” (Black Mask Magazine, June 1936)
these stories were first gathered into a book in 1950, Houghton Mifflin’s The Simple Art of Murder
[*covers from owner’s own copies]
[updated 6/6/25]
The Simple Art of Murder x 2
June 1972 Ballantine reissue, 1st print
cover art by Tom Adams
1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd print
includes:
“The Simple Art of Murder” (Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1944)
“Spanish Blood” (Black Mask Magazine, Nov. 1935)
“I’ll Be Waiting” (Saturday Evening Post, Dec. 1939)
“The King in Yellow” (Dime Detective Magazine, Mar. 1938)
“Pearls are a Nuisance” (Dime Detective Magazine, April 1939)
cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie
[covers from owner’s own copies]
Trouble is My Business x 3
June 1973 Ballantine reissue
cover art by Tom Adams
1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd printing
includes:
introduction by Raymond Chandler, originally from The Simple Art of Murder (Houghton Mifflin, 1950)
“Trouble is My Business” (Dime Detective Magazine, Aug. 1939)
“Finger Man” (Black Mask Magazine, Oct. 1934)
“Goldfish” (Black Mask Magazine, June 1936)
“Red Wind” (Dime Detective Magazine, Jan. 1938)
cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie
[covers from owner’s own copies]
[updated 3/3/26]
1957 Avon reissue
1957 Avon reissue of 1948 Simon & Schuster hardcover Report for a Corpse, a collection of six short stories
better image than previously posted
Gangsters and Gun Molls #3, 1952
Gangsters and Gun Molls #3, Avon, 1952
Art taken from Avon Paperback #143, entitled “Flash Casey” by George Harmon Coxe. Art credit from Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1948.
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