Category: finest kind

1995 Pantheon hardcover

1995 Pantheon hardcover, first printing

a sweaty, sexy noir novel, a modern classic by an author who deserves to be far more widely read.

when she came to the shop to sign the book, she wore a custom-made leather outfit of the same colors and design as the book’s jacket.

jacket design by Marjorie Anderson

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

June 1955 Pocket paperback

1946 Morrow hardcover

28th Perry Mason novel

June 1955 Pocket paperback reissue, 7th printing

cover photo by Alfred Gesheidt

better image than previously posted

1959 Cardinal paperback reissue

cover art by Charles Binger

better image than previously posted

artwork by Robert Maguire

Oil on board, 12.375 x 10 in. (sight)
Not signed

A variation of this illustration was published as the paperback cover for The Joy Zone by Anthony Dare, All Star Books AS 85 variant, 1966:

~ her hair is different

~ she’s now looking out at the reader

~ her ‘garment’ is different

~ pillows have different brushwork

~ shadow and background are different

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]