
Parole Breakers #2 (Avon, 1952)
cover art repurposed from Avon Books 114, 1947
cover art by William Stanke

used a third time for 1955 Avon paperback original but modified to replace gun with paper


Parole Breakers #2 (Avon, 1952)
cover art repurposed from Avon Books 114, 1947
cover art by William Stanke

used a third time for 1955 Avon paperback original but modified to replace gun with paper


cover art by Art Sussman
first published as Sinister Errand, Collins UK hardcover, 1945

1946 Chartered digest paperback original
better image than previously posted

1950 Avon paperback original, 1st printing, seven stories originally published in Black Mask Magazine
“Black” (May 1932)
“Red 71” (December 1932)
“Parlor Trick” (July 1932)
“One, Two, Three” (May 1933)
“Murder in Blue” (June 1933) – “Murder Done in Blue” in the original magazine
“Pigeon Blood” (November 1933)
“Pineapple” (March 1936)


1987 Black Lizard reissue
cover art by Kirwin

1987 Blood & Guts hardcover reissue
cover art by Joe Servello


February 2012 Centipede hardcover
cover art by Ron Lesser
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop


Parole Breakers #1 (Avon, 1951)

1948 Morrow hardcover as Dead Level
1950 Avon paperback reissue with new title

better image than previously posted
cover art by Ernest Chiriacka

1962 Panther mass market, UK paperback
better image than previously posted

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]