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”
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), 38th of 45 stories in BM
~ Horace McCoy, “Renegades of the Rio”, 3rd 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]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Field, Temple (pseudonym of Raoul Whitfield). FIVE. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Incorporated Publishers, [1931]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-270 [271-274: blank], publisher’s light orange cloth stamped in brown, top edge stained light, other edges untrimmed. First edition. First of the two novels by Whitfield published in book form under the pseudonym “Temple Field.” First published in BLACK MASK in nine parts as “The Laughing Death,” as by Raoul Whitfield, it was largely rewritten for book publication. The story’s protagonist, a World War I flying ace (Whitfield did fly in WWI but not in combat) whose father, a prosecuting attorney, has been murdered, wreaks vengeance upon the five men involved. Hubin, p. 282. Slight spine roll, mild spine fade, a very good copy in good dust jacket priced $2.00 on the front flap with wear and fraying with shallow loss along the top and bottom edges, mainly spine ends, orange ink on spine panel faded away, soiling to rear panel and water stains with light show through on outer surface. Presents better than it appears from the written description. From the library of a well-known mystery writer with his library stamp on the front paste-down.
Black Mask issues containing the “Laughing Death” series
March 1929: “Out of the Sky”
April 1929: “The Six-Gun Showdown”
June 1929: “Within the Circle”
July 1929: “The Carnival Kill”
August 1929: “River Street Death”
cover art by Norman Saunders – oil on board, 22 x 15 in.
better image than previously posted
Albert Simmons, “Dead Air”
Day Keene, “He Who Dies Last, Dies Hardest” (reprint from 1943)
Raymond Drennen, Jr., “Pennies From Hell”
Rufus Bakalor, “A Hitch in Crime”
Don James, “Babe and the Hoods”
Duane Yarnell, “Death on the Menu” (Patrolman Kelly)
[I wonder which was reversed – the image of the painting or the image for the cover…]
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
better image than previously posted
Robert Martin, “Death Gives a Permanent Wave” (PI Jim Bennett)
D.L. Champion, “Slaying Room Only!”
John D. MacDonald, “Oh, Give Me a Hearse”
Charles Larson, “Covet and Kill”
Richard E. Glendinning, “Invitation to Hell”
Paula Elliot, “Murder is Too Personal“
Frank Ward, “Nightmare Alley”
SMB Noir 