Category: crime fiction

August 1929 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

August 1929 issue

cover art by Fred Craft

~ Peter Ames Cressey, “Do Your Stuff, Ranger”, ‘Western with Carnes’, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Spawn of the Night”, 8th of 10 Bob Larkin stories, listed incorrectly in the Table of Contents as ‘Hanging Friday’, 43rd of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “Fly Paper”, ‘the Op [23rd of 25] & arsenical fly paper, reprinted The Hard-Boiled Omnibus (1946)’, reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 40th of 51 stories of BM

~ Earl and Marion Scott, “The Other Cameo”, 3rd of 6 stories with ‘Cameo Kirby, reformed jewel thief’, 8th of 17 stories in BM as a couple

~ Victor Shaw, “Birds of Prey”, ‘getaway from a road gang’, last of 5 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “River Street Death”, Gary Greer, 7th (of 9) in the Laughing Dead series, ‘presented as separate stories rather than conventional serial; pub. As Five (1931) under the pseudonym of Temple Field’, 33rd of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]. Reprinted in Laughing Death (Steeger Books, 2021).

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

1944, Double Indemnity

Production still from the lost “alternate” ending to Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) showing Fred MacMurray entering the gas chamber while Edward G. Robinson stands by as a sorrowful witness. This ending was cut from the final release. Wilder thought it was unnecessary, and the Hayes Office thought it was too gruesome. 

November 27, 2013