Tag: avon paperback

Hardest of the Hardboiled #2 x 7

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”

1952 Avon reprint

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]

1950 Avon paperback original

1950 Avon paperback original. six stories that first appeared in Black Mask Magazine

“The Red Hots” (December 1930)

“Get a Load of This” (February 1931)

“Spare the Rod” (August 1931)

“Pearls are Tears” (September 1931)

“Death’s Not Enough” (October 1931)

“Save Your Tears” (June 1933)

cover art by Ray Johnson

Charlotte Jay, Beat Not The Bones, 1952 Avon reissue

Winner of the very first Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1954

Jay was the pen name of Geraldine Halls who was born in Adelaide, South Australia on December 17,1919. After writing just nine novels in her life and traveling to exotic locales with her husband, a UNESCO official, she died on October 27, 1996 in her hometown.

better image than previously posted