~ Carroll John Daly, “Tainted Power”, 34th of 53, ‘Williams &‘The Flame’ aka Florence Drummond, ‘The Girl with the Criminal Mind’, Pt. 1 of loosely organized 3-pt. serial; pub. As novel (1931) under same title’, 46th of 71 appearances in BM
~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “Signals of Storm”, Jo Gar, PI with office in Manila , 4th of 24 stories in BM, reprinted in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Bar (Altus Press, 2013)
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Hell’s Kettle”, 33th Ed Jenkins & his wife Helen Chadwick, 2nd of a 3-part story with The Crime Crusher, 50th of 99 stories in BM, reprinted in The Black Mask Boys (1985, Morrow)
~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Shattered Key”, Ned Beaumont, last of 4 stories that will go together to make up The Glass Key (published 1931), issue includes editor’s note on DH, 44th of 45 stories in BM
~ Hapsburg Liebe, “Red Dice”, ‘Blaze Hanson in Florida cattle country; see p. 120 for HL’s comment on story’ 3rd of 4 stories in BM
~ Frank L. Benscoter, “Shola Al”, ‘a detective story’, 3rd of 5 stories in BM
~ C. Chapin, “Room Rent”, author’s only appearance in BM
~ Valma Clark, “A Little Matter of Chivalry”, “A Mystery of Real Life”, only appearance in BM
~ Ray(mond King) Cummings, “The System of T. McGuirk”, ‘11th of 14 McGuirk stories, billed as “the quaintest character in the Underworld” & honest, more of less’, 11th of 15 stories in BM
~Carroll John Daly, “Conceited, Maybe”, 7th of 53 with Race Williams, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015) 15th of 71 appearances in BM
~ Arthur Kearns, “A Born Thief”, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Genevieve Neegard, “The Sandalwood Casket”, advertised as ‘a meek man drunk with blood’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ William Rollins, Jr., “Treasures That Dead Men Guard”, part 3 of 3, last of 3 stories with Jack Darrow, 12th of 23 stories in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “The Grey-Green House”, 39th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 40th of 49 total articles in BM
~ John Baer, “The Silver Lining”, 11th of 24 stories in BM
~ Walter Deffenbaugh, “The Talking Wind”, 6th of 14 stories in BM
~ Elizabeth (Bessie) Dudley, “The Blonde Shadow”, 2nd of 4 stories in BM
~ Grover Fayerweather, “When Two Plus Two Equals Five”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Victor Lauriston, “The Dead Man’s Letters”, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ H.W. Starr, “The Sheriff Takes the Stand”, 1st of 3 stories by the same author under 3 different names (with Ward and Sterling) in this issue
~ Ward Sterling, “The Whip of Death”, 2nd of 3 stories in this issue (see Ward), 9th of 16 stories under this name in BM
~ Frederic J. Thorne, “The Death Warrant”, part 2 of 2, ‘A Mystery Novel’, 5th of 10 stories
~ Frederic J. Thorne, “The Man Who Died Twice”, ‘narrated by defendant to jury; murder of twins in Seattle & Hong Kong’, 2nd of 2 stories in this issue, 6th of 10 stories in BM
~ Harold Ward, “The Hand of Destiny”, ‘Secret Service op, 1st person narrator’, 3rd story in this issue, 18th of 29 stories under this name in BM [26th, 27th and 28th of 46 stories in BM under three different names – Ward Sterling and H.W. Starr]
~ J.R. Ward, “The Bamboozler”, ‘N.B. It is possible that JRW is also a pseudonym of Harold Ward’, 1st of 2 stories in this issue, 1st of three under this name in BM
~ J.R. Ward, “The Emperor of Blunderland”, 2nd of 2 stories in this issue, last of three under this name in BM
~ Russell Bender, “Heat Target”, ‘mayor of a small Maryland town’, 1st of 3 stories in BM
~ John K. Butler, “No Rest for Soldiers”, ‘WWI vets, bonuses & Russ McGregor’, 5th of 11 stories in BM
~ Lester Dent, “Sail”, 1st Oscar Sale story, set in Miami, 1st of 2 stories in BM, reprinted The Hard-Boiled Detective (1977), earlier version of this story reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black MaskStories (Vintage, 2010) as “Luck”. “Sail” and “Luck” reprinted in Luck: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Oscar Sail (Steeger Books, 2021).
~ Roger Torrey, “Jail Bait”, ‘1st (of 14) in Pat McCarthy series, with Marge Chalmers often his “sidekick”; he is ex-NYC cop, ex-agency man (Chicago & St. Louis) who dislikes cops’, 21st of 50 appearances in BM
~ Eugene Cunningham, “Gunhands”, Western with Bob Burney, 5th of 14 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “’The Flame’ and Race Williams”, 39th of 53 with RW, part 1 of 3, ‘pub.as The Third Murderer (1931)’, reprinted in Shooting out of Turn: The Collected Hard-boiled Stories of Race Williams, v.3 (Altus, 2017), 51st of 71 appearances in BM
~ James P. Olsen, “Gunman’s Goal”, ‘Tip Wing’, last of 6 Western stories in BM
~ Earl and Marion Scott, “Lights Out at Benetti’s”, 5th of 6 stories with ‘Phil Craleigh, once brilliant lawyer, now a drunk, given to bouts of reform’, Benetti’s is a nightclub, 15th of 17 stories in BM as a couple
~ Stewart Stirling, (‘possible pseud. of Stewart Sterling?’), “Two-Timer”, 2nd of 8 stories with ‘Johnny Hi Gear, a.k.a. K-5, Undercover Agent’ [Sterling and Stirling were pen names of Nathaniel Prentice Winchell, 20 total stories in BM]. Reprinted in Boomerang Dice: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Johnny Hi Gear (Steeger Books, 2020).
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “For Sale – Murder”, ‘Center City yarn, Gil Baggart, a square dick’, sequel to “Soft City” in previous issue, 49th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
~ Cleve Adams, “That Certain Feeling”, ‘Engelhardt & Dewey, Car 97, LA setting’, 2nd of 6 stories in BM
~ W.T. Ballard, “Pictures for Murder”, 22nd of 27 stories with ‘Bill Lennox, troubleshooter for Consolidated Films’, 34th of 43 stories in BM
~ William E. Brandon, “Danny, Once the Rat”, ‘police-stoolie & Nazi spies’, 3rd of 7 stories in BM
~ Dale Clark, “Killer in the Wind”, 2nd of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 4th of 32 stories in BM
~ John Lawrence, “Death in the Pluperfect”, 1st of 2 stories with ‘Ace McGuire, Broadway squad, 1st-person narrator’, 7th of 14 stories in BM
~ Robert Reeves, “Dog Eat Dog”, Cellini Smith and RR’s debut, 1st of 3 parts that will be published as the novel No Love Lost in 1941, reprinted in Dead and Done For: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Cellini Smith (Steeger, 2020), 1st of 12 appearances in BM
~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
SMB Noir 