Category: crime fiction

1942 Avon reissue – cover art by Gil Tompkins

published in 1936 in hardcover by Morrow

1942 Avon Books, #18

cover art by Gil Tompkins

2nd book published with this pen name and second book with newspaperman Robin Bishop

pseudonym of Daniel Mainwaring who, as Homes, wrote Build My Gallows High (1946), adapted into the classic film noir Out of the Past (1947). 2nd book published with this pen name and second book with newspaperman Robin Bishop

May 1930 issue ~ cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

May 1930 issue

cover art by J. W. Schlaikjer

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Crime Crusher”, 32th Ed Jenkins & his wife Helen Chadwick, 1st of a 3-part story, 49th of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “Dagger Point”, Ned Beaumont, 3rd of 4 stories that will go together to make up The Glass Key (published 1931), 43rd of 45 stories in BM

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Slowdown Hands”, 14th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, 18th of 39 stories in BM

~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Street Wolf”, ’Napoleon Damiani, gangster’, 23 of 67 stories in BM

~ Reuben Jennings Shay, “Backfire”, 1st of 2 in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Temple Field aka Raoul Whitfield

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

February 1929: “On the Spot”

March 1929: “Out of the Sky”

April 1929: “The Six-Gun Showdown”

May 1929: “High Odds”

June 1929: “Within the Circle”

July 1929: “The Carnival Kill”

August 1929: “River Street Death”

September 1929: “The Squeeze”

October 1929: “Sal the Dude”