1959 J reissue – cover art by Giovanni Benvenuti

1959 J reissue, #71

cover art by Giovanni Benvenuti

one of John Creasey’s many pseudonyms (he used 20 or so with his 500 plus novels)

the Ashe books featured Patrick Dawlish and this is the 21st, published by Evans in 1949

1960 Great Pan reissue

“Patrick Quentin” was the pseudonym of Hugh Wheeler and Richard Wilson Webb

1960 Great Pan reissue

published in the US in 1952 as Black Widow, a Simon & Schuster hardcover. published the following year in the UK by Gollancz with this different title. 8th with Broadway producer Peter Duluth.

cover art by Sam Peffer?

September 1924 UK issue ~ cover art by L.L. Balcom

September 1924 UK issue

cover art by L.L. Balcom

most contents the same as US Sept. 1924

~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “The Dragon Fly”, 14th of 29 stories in BM [US Jan.’23]

~ Royce Brier, “Black and Blue”, ‘set in Mexico’, last of 5 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Accommodatin’ a Lady”, 1st of 10 Bob Larkin stories, 1st person narrator, author’s first appearance in BM under this name (see June, 1924), 2nd of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “Women, Politics and Murder”, the Op [11th of 25], reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), in The Girl with the Silver Eyes: The Complete Black Mask Cases of the Continental Op, vol.2 (Steeger, 2023), 18th of 51 stories in BM

~ Francis James, “The Long Hand of Middleton”, Prentice, Harvard-trained criminologist turned policeman, 16th of 20 appearances in BM

~ Jud Pierce, “Sunrise”, ‘short-short’, author’s only appearance in BM

~ Ray Raymond, “The Curse of the Long Tooth”, ‘South Seas mystery’, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Charles Somerville, “The Rough Diamond”, 33rd of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 34th of 49 total articles in BM

~ George A. Wright, “The Mountain Comes to Mohammad”, author’s only appearance in BM

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