Category: finest kind

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

cover art by Rafael de Soto

November 1944 issue

better image than previously posted

~ Merle Constiner, “Killer Stay ‘Way from My Door”, ‘Luther McGavock, private detective; he works Atherton Browne who heads a Memphis-based agency, 7th of 11 of the McG stories; usually rural setting’, 7th of 12 stories in BM

~ Brett Halliday (pseud. of David Dresser), “A Taste for Cognac”, 1st of 2 Mike Shayne stories in BM

~ Julius Long, “Blind Bogey”, 2nd of 17 stories with ’Ben Corbett, D.A.’s chief investigator, 1st -person narrator’, 7th of 23 stories in BM

~ Robert Reeves, “Murder A.W.O.L.”, 8th Cellini Smith, ‘on his induction day, WWII’, 10th of 12 appearances in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

September 1946 issue ~ cover art by Rafael DeSoto

September 1946 issue

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

better image than previously posted

~ Dale Clark, “The Sound of the Shot”, 26th of 28 stories with O’Hanna, ‘with movie people & Hollywood beauty contest’, 30th of 32 stories in BM

~ William Campbell Gault, “Hot-House Homicide”, ‘debut of Mortimer Jones (Jonesy), private cop, narrator, drives a Duesenberg’, 1st of 9 stories in BM

~ C.M. (Cyril) Kornbluth, “Beer-Bottle Polka”, ‘Tim Skeat, private cop, 1st person narrator, in NYC’, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 1st of 2 stories in BM, both with Skeat

~ Julius Long, “This Is Murder”, 14th of 17 stories with ‘Ben Corbett, D.A.’s chief investigator, 1st -person narrator’, 19th of 23 stories in BM

~ William Rough, “Don’t Burn Your Corpses Behind You”, ‘Ben Slabbe, p.i., who has his own agency; 4th of 5 capers’ in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

November 1935 issue ~ H.J. Ward

November 1935

cover art by H.J. Ward

better image than previously posted

sometimes referred to as the November 1935 “B” cover. the “A” cover was the October 1935 issue with the same stories – except the cover story – in a different order, but the cover was thought more “lurid…