aviation fiction – SMB Noir

February 1927 issue ~ cover art by Frank H. Harbaugh

February 1927 issue

cover art by Francis H. Harbaugh

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Cat-Woman”, 13th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, reprinted in Dead Men’s Letters (1990, Carroll & Graf anthology of Jenkins stories), reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (Vintage, 2007), 22nd of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Big Knock-Over”, Continental Op [20^th of 25], see 5/1927 for sequel, “$106,000 Blood Money”, reprinted with its sequel as Blood Money (Tower, 1943), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 29th of 51 stories in BM

~ (Charles John) Cutcliffe Hyne, “Fortunes Adrift”, 4th of 8 yarns with Captain Kettle

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “The Stolen Rancho”, ‘border tale’, 5th of 39 stories in BM

~ Lt. Col. J.H. [John Henry] Patterson, D.S.O., “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo”, 5th of 7 serialized parts of this ex-British Army officer’s account of building a railway in Kenya, 1898-1899; book published in 1927

~ J. Paul Suter, “The Tail of the Serpent”, 12th of 15 stories with The Reverend McGregor Daunt, ‘clergyman by profession and detective by choice’, ‘robbery & murder in archeological museum’, 16th of 19 appearances in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “White Murder”, 2nd of 7 Chuck Reddington story; airplanes & machineguns’, 10th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

January 1927 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

January 1927 issue

cover art by Fred Craft

~ Tom Curry, “The Stoolie”, 6^th of 23 stories with Macnamara (Mac), NYPD 1^st grade dick, 10^th of 39 stories in BM

~ Carroll John Daly, “Twenty Grand”, ‘Benny Slawson, “product of Delancey Street”’, 25th of 71 appearances in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Whispering Sand”, 3^rd of 7 with Black Barr, 21st of 99 stories in BM

~ Westmoreland Gray, “Slayer’s Finesse”, ‘Wallace McNeel, private ‘shoe, & police captain’, 1st of 3 stories in BM

~ (Charles John) Cutcliffe Hyne, “The Pilgrim Ship”, 3rd of 8 yarns with Captain Kettle

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “The Reformation of Ace Brand”, “border story’, 4th of 39 stories in BM

~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Dumb Luck”, ‘Whitey Fleer, professional crook in NYC‘, reprinted in Street Wolf (Altus Press, 2014), 3 of 67 stories

~ Lt. Col. J.H. [John Henry] Patterson, D.S.O., “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo”, 4th of 7 serialized parts of this ex-British Army officer’s account of building a railway in Kenya, 1898-1899; book published in 1927

~ L.R. Sherman, “The Last Cartridge”, ‘The Frozen North’, 1^st of 3 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Uneasy Money”, ‘aviation on the border; Buck, 1^st person narrator’, 9^th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

September 1926 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

September 1926 issue

cover art by Fred Craft

~ Ray(mond King) Cummings, “T. McGuirk Catches a Crook”, ‘last of 14 McGuirk stories, billed as “the quaintest character in the Underworld” & honest, more of less’, last of 15 stories in BM

~ Ralph Cummins, “Ace King”, Western, last of 3 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Laugh That Off”, 10th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, he ‘and Helen Chadwick are engaged’, reprinted in Dead Men’s Letters (1990) Carroll & Graf anthology of Jenkins stories, 17^th of 99 stories in BM

~ Colin Martins, “Stolen Plumes”, ‘set in Florida‘, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

~ J. Paul Suter, “The Grandover Diamond”, 11th of 15 stories with The Reverend McGregor Daunt, ‘clergyman by profession and detective by choice’, 15th of 19 appearances in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Flying Gold”, ‘Hen’ Darrow, joy-hopping pilot’, 6th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[a horrible image but the first I’ve ever found]

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

Spring 1947 issue

Spring 1947

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”, 8^th of 39 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Forget ‘Em All”, 9th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘The Phantom Crook’, 16^th 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!”, 1^st 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”, 1^st of 3 with Rio Kennedy of the Customs Service in Santo Domingo, 11^th 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‘, 1^st 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

December 1930 issue ~ cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

December 1930 issue

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “The Caleso Murders”, 1st story by RFW in this issue, 8^th of 24 Jo Gar stories in BM, reprinted in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Bar (Altus Press, 2013)

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Racketeers’ Reef”, last of 3 with Rio Kennedy of the Customs Service in Santo Domingo, 20th of 39 stories in BM

~ Horace McCoy, “The Mailed Fist”, 8th of 14 Frost stories ’Capt. Jerry Frost, Texas (Air) Ranger & Stepsons have a go at ‘The Big Shot’, 9^th of 17 stories in BM

~ Frederick L. Nebel, “The Red-Hots”, 2nd of 15 stories with ‘tough dick Donahue of Interstate’, reprinted in Tough as Nails (2012, Altus), 27 of 67 stories in BM

~ James P. Olsen, “Honor of the Show”, ‘deformed sideshow owner, Price Eco, and murder’, 3rd of 6 Western stories in BM

~ Bertrand W(illiam) Sinclair, “Rope’s End”, ‘Western; Bill Stokes’, 1^st of 3 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Murder in the Ring”, ‘boxing, gamblers, racketeers, with Primo-Carnera-like boxer’; reprinted in May ’51 issue, 2^nd story in this issue, 44th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

December 1952 issue ~ cover art by Norman Saunders

December 1952 issue

cover art by Norman Saunders – oil on board, 20.5 x 14.75 in.

better image than previously posted

Craig Rice & Mark Hope, “Case of the Vanishing Blonde” (Ed Bradbury)

Tiah Devitt, “The Merry Wives of Murder” (reprint from 1942)

Larry Holden, “Lady-Killer”

Richard Goggin, “For Old Crime’s Sake”

V.E. Thiessen, “Lady in Hades”

John Bender, “Tying Room Only”

Andrew Holt, “Death on a Platter”

Rufus Bakalor, “Love, Honor and Slay”

December 1929 issue x 2

December 1929 issue #1

December 1929 issue #2

both better images than previously posted

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Triple Treachery”, 30th of 73 stories with Ed Jenkins, with his wife Helen Chadwick, in LA, 2nd half of story with Ramsey, from previous issue, 47th of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Maltese Falcon”, part 4 of 5 serialized parts before hardcover publication (1931), reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 38^th of 45 stories in BM

~ Horace McCoy, “Renegades of the Rio”, 3^rd of 14 stories with ‘Capt. Jerry Frost, Texas (Air) Ranger’, 4th of 17 stories in BM

~ Lester Reynard, “Saving the Double-Cross”, 4th of 5 stories in BM

~ Earl and Marion Scott, “Craleigh Comes to Life”, 2nd of 6 stories with ‘Phil Craleigh, once brilliant lawyer, now a drunk, given to bouts of reform’, 10th of 17 stories in BM as a couple

~ L.R. Sherman, “Reading Sign on the Sagebrush Kid”, Western, last of 3 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Outside”, ‘Mal Ourney; part 1 (of 5), ‘The Crime Breeders’, presented as separate stories rather than conventional serial’, pub. in hardcover in 1930 by Knopf as Green Ice, 35th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]