January 1947 issue ~ cover art by Rafael DeSoto

January 1947 issue

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

better image than previously posted

~ Dale Clark, “Heavenly Homicide”, 27th of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 31st of 32 stories in BM

~ William Campbell Gault, “The Cold, Cold Ground”, 2nd of 5 with Mortimer Jones, 2nd of 9 stories in BM

~ Julius Long, “I Remember Murder”, 15th of 17 stories with ’Ben Corbett, D.A.’s chief investigator, 1st -person narrator’, 20th of 23 stories in BM

~ Donn Mullally, “The Corpse I Left Behind Me”, ’Martin Fowler in Hollywood’, 1st of 2 stories in BM

~ William Rough, “Hot Ice”, ‘Ben Slabbe, p.i., who has his own agency; last of 5 capers’ in BM

~ Donegan Wiggins, “The Double-Cross”, ‘brief-brief’, author’s only appearance in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

June 1947 UK edition

[UK cover added 5/16/25]

cover art by Reginald Heade

Sweetheart With a Wreath, paperback cover, 1953
Watercolor and gouache on board with paper appliqué
14.25 x 9.25 in. (sight)
Signed lower left


This painting, originally depicting a blonde, was published as the cover for Curves Cause Trouble by Gene Ross, Leisure Library #21, 1953. The work was subsequently published as the cover of Sweetheart With a Wreath by Michael Storme, Harborough, 1953, for which the image was manipulated to illustrate a darker haired female in a black tiara.

June 1949 UK issue ~ cover art by Peter Stevens

June 1949 UK

cover art by Peter Stevens

British edition of the hardboiled detective pulp magazine Black Mask. This issue is a partial reprint of the January 1949 American issue, leaving out the short story “Extra Alibi” by D. L. Champion and the article “Bullets, Ballistics And Bloodshed” by J. E. B. Cole.”