first in the long-running and deservedly respected Lew Archer series by Kenneth Millar, aka Ross Macdonald. After using his father’s name as the pen name for this novel, he was forced by John D. MacDonald to alter it for future novels, and Ross Macdonald was born.
~Eustace Hale Ball & Earl Derby, “Dead Men Do Tell!”, ‘The First of the Black Mask Daytime Stories – not to be read at night by people with weak nerves.” EHB’s debut in BM
~ Carl Clausen, “The Careful Alibi”, ‘Complete Novelette’, 2nd of 3 stories in BM
~ Frederick Ames Coates, “Bottled Judgment”, last of 5 stories in BM
~ Peter Condet, “The Indorsed Check”, ‘baseball background’, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Thomas Ewing Dabney, “Tom Shepherd and the Rat”, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Marie Eisenbrandt, “The Breaking Point”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ John Hanlon, “A Shred of Yellow Paper, ‘short-short, less than a half page‘, 1st of 3 stories in BM
~ Roy L. McCardell, “A Million A Year”, 1st of 4 parts, 1st of 5 appearances in BM
~ J.R. McCarthy, “Payment As Promised”, ‘short-short’, author’s only appearance in BM
~ John McColl, “But She Looked Lovely”, ‘poem’, 1st of 3 works in BM
~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “The Goat”, 13th of 29 stories in BM
~ Herman Petersen, “Shark-Bait”, ‘short-short‘, 5th of 20 stories in BM
~ A. Rose, “A Substitute for Blood”, ‘story illus. by author who also designed cover of issue’, author’s sole story in BM
~ Joe Taylor, “The Life of a Hold-Up Man”, ‘1st (of 12) tales in ‘My Underworld’ series; JT is advertised as ‘ex-automobile bandit’ with 15 years’ experience in crime; early on, listed as fact; later, as fiction; see p. 40 for photo-portrait of JT’, 1st of 13th appearances in BM
~ Sally Dixon Wright, “The House on the Dunes”, author’s only appearance in BM
~ Dwight V. Babcock, “Murder in the Family”, 2nd of 7, ‘Beeker in the San Joaquin Valley’, 16th of 21 stories in BM
~ Hal Murray Bonnett, “Dynamite Deal”, author’s only appearance in BM [who signed the cover]
~ Gregor Endell, “Murder Suspected”, author’s only appearance in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Muscle Out”, 65th of 73 Ed Jenkins with Soo Hoo Duck, Ngat T’oy, 92nd of 100 appearances stories in BM
~ Frank Gruber, “No Motive”, 6th of 14 stories in BM
~ Theodore A. Tinsley, “No More Limericks”, ‘21st (of 25) Jerry Tracy capers, columnist on the (NYC) Planet, ‘mixer with poor and rich, the crooked and the straight, trailer of trouble and happiness’, reprinted in Station K-I-L-L: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Jerry Tracy, vol.3 (Steeger, 2024), 22nd of 26 stories in BM
edited by Sarah Weinman, an historical survey of the “Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense”.
authors include Shirley Jackson, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Elizabeth Sanxay Holding, Helen Neilsen, Patricia Highsmith, Margaret Millar and Vera Caspary.
~ Curtis Cluff, “Leave Killings to the Cops”, last of 3 with Honolulu PI Johnny Ford, 1st person-narrator, 3rd of 4 stories in BM
~ Norman A. Daniels, “License to Kill “, Stacy Tucker, PI, last of 4 stories in BM
~ Richard Deming, “A Shot in the Arm”, Manville “Manny” Moon, 1st-person narrator, 2nd of 6 stories in BM
~ Paul W. Fairman, “Big-Time Operator”, ‘young guy (1st-person narrator) getting into the rackets, reprinted, The Hard-Boiled Detective (1977)’, author’s only appearance in BM
~ William Campbell Gault, “Don’t Bet on Death”, ‘Cary Vaughn & Ned Orlow, private eyes’, 7th of 9 stories in BM
~ W. Lee Herrington, [also published in BM as Alan Farley], “Bury Me Last”, ‘Barney Moffatt, D.A.’s office’, 3rd of 4 stories under this name in BM
~ Victor K. Ray, “Eeeney-Meeny-Money –Murder!”, ‘Bill Baldwin, nightclub bookkeeper, 1st person-narrator’, author’s only appearance in BM
~ Dwight V. Babcock, “Hide-Out”, ‘1st G-Man Chuck Thompson story of 7; CT, Special Agent, FBI, in LA’, 6th of 21 stories in BM
~ W.T. Ballard, “Murder Makes a Difference”, 2nd of 2 Jimmy DeHaven stories, 14th of 43 stories in BM
~ Raymond Chandler, “Nevada Gas”, Johnny DeRuse, first book appearance Five Murderers (Avon digest, 2/3/44), first hardcover appearance The Simple Art of Murder (Houghton Mifflin, 1950), then Pickup on Noon Street (Pocket, 1/52), various paperback editions 5th of 11 stories in BM
~ George Harmon Coxe, “Thirty Tickets to Win”, ‘Flashgun Casey at the race-track’, 11th of 27 Casey, 11th of 31 stories in BM
~ Roger Torrey, “Dead Men Can Talk”, last of 11 Dal Prentice capers, Magna City police dick, ‘one tough guy’, 16th of 50 appearances in BM