May 1943 issue
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
Cornell Woolrich, “Mind over Murder”
W.T. Ballard, “A Heel of the First Water”
Dale Clark, “Death is from Taxes” (Plates O’Rion)
Duane Yarnell, “Murder is My Meat”
Frederick C. Davis, “Home Sweet Homicide” (Bill Brant)
Henry Norton, “Bait”
[updated 5/14/25]
one of SMB founder Bill Farley’s Top Five Mysteries of all time. Sir Eustace is a cad of the first water, with a specialty in other men’s wives, and the list of people who might want to do him in could fill a London phone book. But which of them actually sent the chocolates with their nasty hidden payload? Scotland Yard is baffled. Enter the Crime Circle, a group of society intellectuals with a shared conviction in their ability to succeed where the police have failed. Eventually, each member will produce a tightly reasoned solution to the Case of the Poisoned Chocolates, but each of those solutions will identify a different murderer. First published in 1929, this is both a classic of the golden age of mystery fiction, and one of the great puzzle-mysteries of all time.
cover art by Gloria Stoll
better image than previously posted
~ Dale Clark, “Heir in the Air”, 22nd of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 25th of 32 stories in BM
~ Brett Halliday (pseud. of David Dresser), “Dead Man’s Diary”, 2nd of 2 Mike Shayne stories in BM
~ Julius Long, “Over My Dead Body”, 7th of 17 stories with ’Ben Corbett, D.A.’s chief investigator, 1st -person narrator’, 12th of 23 stories in BM
~ Robert Reeves, “Alcoholics Calamitous”, last of 10 Cellini Smith appearances, last of 12 appearances in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by Walter Baumhofer
Hersey swastika: “The Symbol of Good Reading – A Hersey Magazine”
SMB Noir 