
cover art by Norman Saunders
cover art repurposed for the May 1947 10-Story Detective

cover art by John Drew
better image than previously posted
~ John K. Butler, “Guns for a Lady”, ‘ex-pug, 1st-person narrator; bodyguard for girl’, 2nd of 11 stories in BM
~ Paul Cain, “Pineapple”, ‘Nick Green & Blondie Kessler, police-reporter’, later released as one of the Seven Slayers (1950 Avon), reprinted in The Complete Slayers (2011 Centipede Press), 16th of 17 stories in BM
~ Raymond Chandler, “The Man Who Liked Dogs”, ‘1st of 4 Carmady stories, reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Omnibus (1946)‘ [Simon & Schuster, first hardcover and first book appearance], and Killer in the Rain (Hammish hc, 1964), 7th of 11 stories in BM
~ George Harmon Coxe, “You Gotta Be Tough”, 1st of 4 stories with Paul Baron, 16th of 31 stories in BM
~ Thomas Walsh, “Diamonds Mean Death”, ‘Joe Keenan, private copper’, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), last of 6 stories in BM
~ Edward S. Williams, “Death Has Green Eyes”, ‘Mike Dunneen, private ‘tec’, 1st of 8 appearances in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[cover updated 10/27/25]

November 1943 issue
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
~ William E. Brandon, “It’s So Peaceful in the Country”, ‘Horse Luvnik, ex-con goes to work for academic types, reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Detective (1977)’, last of 7 stories in BM
~ Merle Constiner, “Kill One, Skip One” ‘Luther McGavock, private detective; he works Atherton Browne who heads a Memphis-based agency, 5th of 11 of the McG stories; usually rural setting’, reprinted in Let the Dead Alone: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Luther McGavock (Steeger, 2020), 5th of 12 stories in BM
~ C.P. Donnel, Jr., “So Red the Ruby”, ‘Privates Maguire & Caldwell on a 3-day leave in NYC’, 16th of 20 stories in BM
~ Julius Long, “The Devil’s Jack-Pot”, ‘Addison Secore, criminal lawyer, is villain‘, 4th of 23 stories in BM
~ H.H. Stinson, “Two Rings for Murder”, ‘Sam South, loan company proprietor, & Nazi spies’, 18th of 27 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
1935 Morrow hardcover as The Clew of the Forgotten Murder as by Carleton Kendrake

April 1953 Pocket paperback reissue, 19th printing
cover painting by Frank McCarthy
better image than previously posted

cover art by Ernest Chiriacka (Darcy)