
1956 Gold Medal paperback original
cover art by Mitchell Hooks
better image than previously posted

1987 Black Lizard reissue with new title
[updated 6/20/25]

1956 Gold Medal paperback original
cover art by Mitchell Hooks
better image than previously posted

1987 Black Lizard reissue with new title
[updated 6/20/25]

cover art by Delos Palmer ?

October 1930 issue ~ premiere issue
better image than previously posted
[cover art added 8/9/25]

cover art by Fred Craft
~ Tom Curry, “Under Cover”, DeVrite, NYPD undercover ‘secret agent’, 1st of 7, subtitled ‘The Receiver’, 20th of 39 stories in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Yellow Shadows, 19th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, in Chinatown with Helen Chadwick and Ngat T’oy; “headnote to story provides valuable data (background)”, 29th of 99 stories in BM
~ Dashiell Hammett, “The 19th Murder”, last of 4 Continental Op stories that will go together to make up Red Harvest (Knopf hc, 1929), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 35th of 51 stories in BM
~ Charles T. Hickey, “Left Helps the Cops”, ‘Lefty McRae, crook’, author’s only story in BM
~ Victor Shaw, “The Tommy-Knocker”, Dan Craig & hard rock mining, 2nd with Craig, 3rd of 5 stories in BM
~ David Thibault, “The Contract”, ‘Louisiana lumber swamps in Mississippi Delta, Irish dialect’, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Everett H. Tipton, “Leather Mask and Cowhide Vest”, ‘Western’, 2nd of 7 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Soft Goods”, ‘Little Bennie, a hood, & Charlie Harmer, detective, in Center City’, 18th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[cover updated 1/22/26]

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”

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]

cover art by J. George Janes
~ W.T. Ballard, “Only Proof Counts”, last of 7 with ‘Red Drake, undercover investigator for the State Racing Commission, 1st-person narrator’, 29th of 43 stories in BM
~ Norbert Davis, “Murder in Two Parts”, ‘Brent’, 7th of 13 stories in BM
~ Frank Gruber, “Death on Eagle’s Craig”, 3rd of 10 with ‘Oliver Quade, The Human Encyclopedia’, reprinted in The Hardboiled Dicks (1965), reprinted in The Hardboiled Dicks (1965), 4th of 14 stories in BM
~ Eric Howard, “Copper, Have a Heart”, 4th of 6 story in BM
~ John Lawrence, “Club Fighter”, 1st of 2 stories with ‘Barron Hargraft & boxing in Detroit & NYC‘, 3rd of 14 stories in BM
~ Cornell Woolrich, “Dusk to Dawn”, ‘Lew Stahl’, 8th of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[updated 1/26/26]

oil on board, 20 x 11 inches (50.8 x 27.9 cm)

1963 Belmont paperback original
cover art by Robert Maguire
better image than previously posted
[updated 11/19/24]