November 1928 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

February 1928 issue

cover art by Fred Craft

~ Tom Curry, “Under Cover”, DeVrite, NYPD undercover ‘secret agent’, 1st of 7, subtitled ‘The Receiver’, 20th of 39 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Yellow Shadows, 19th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, in Chinatown with Helen Chadwick and Ngat T’oy; “headnote to story provides valuable data (background)”, 29th of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “The 19th Murder”, last 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), 35th of 51 stories in BM

~ Charles T. Hickey, “Left Helps the Cops”, ‘Lefty McRae, crook’, author’s only story in BM

~ Victor Shaw, “The Tommy-Knocker”, Dan Craig & hard rock mining, 2nd with Craig, 3rd of 5 stories in BM

~ David Thibault, “The Contract”, ‘Louisiana lumber swamps in Mississippi Delta, Irish dialect’, 1st of 2 stories in BM

~ Everett H. Tipton, “Leather Mask and Cowhide Vest”, ‘Western’, 2nd of 7 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Soft Goods”, ‘Little Bennie, a hood, & Charlie Harmer, detective, in Center City’, 18th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[cover updated 1/22/26]

Hardest of the Hardboiled #2 x 7

1933 Doubleday Doran advance reading copy

1948 Avon reprint, 1st paperback edition

cover art by Ann Cantor

Fast One was Cain’s sole novel

Chandler termed it the “high point in the ultra hard-boiled manner”

1952 Avon reprint

cover art by Victor Olsen

1978 Southern Illinois University Press

an entry in their “Lost American Fiction” series

1980 Popular Library 1st print reissue

cover art by Jin Campbell

1987 Black Lizard reissue

cover art by Kirwin

February 2012 Centipede hardcover

cover art by Ron Lesser

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[updated 6/26/25]