
cover art by Rudolph Belarski?

[updated 8/1/25]

May 1, 1934 issue
cover art by John Howitt
better image than previously posted
“Read ‘Em and Weep” (Cardigan) by Frederick Nebel
“The Smoking Corpse” (Edward Delane, lawyer) by Erle Stanley Gardner
“The Duchess of Death” (Jones & Jones) by Maxwell Hawkins
“Hot Money” (Johnny Cass) by R.D. Torrey
“Zero Hour” (Willy Hansen) by Anson Hatch
also includes letter from Carroll John Daly announcing new radio program featuring his character Vee Brown

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer
better image than previously posted
~ Guthrie Brown, “Stalemate”, ‘Western lynching’, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “Shooting Out of Town”, 37th of 53 with Race Williams who ‘goes out of town on a gun job’, 49thof 71 appearances in BM
~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “Nagasaki Bound”, 1st half of Jo Gar story, 6th of 24 stories in BM, reprinted in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Bar (Altus Press, 2013)
~ J. J. Des Ormeaux, “The Dago Trick”, ‘crook tale’, 2nd of 5 stories in BM (pseudonym of Forrest Rosaire)
~ Joseph Harrington, “Footloose Goes Astray”, ‘Western’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Shake-Down”, 12th of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, reprinted in Winter Kill: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kenney, v.2 (Altus, 2013), 25 of 67 stories in BM
~ Earl and Marion Scott, “Bullets for Murder”, 4th of 6 stories with ‘Phil Craleigh, once brilliant lawyer, now a drunk, given to bouts of reform’, million-dollar robbery, 13th of 17 stories in BM as a couple
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Death in a Bowl”, 1st of 3 serialized parts, ‘Ben Jardinn, Hollywood eye, & murder in Hollywood Bowl’, ‘(originally titled The Maestro Murder)’, published in hardcover in 1931 by Knopf, 41st of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

cover art by J. W. Schlaikjer
better image than previously posted
~ Paul Cain, “Red 71”, ‘Dick Shane on the fringes of the Underworld; “71” is NYPD code for gambling-joint’, reprinted in, The Hard-Boiled Omnibus (1946), and later released as one of the Seven Slayers (1950 Avon), reprinted in The Complete Slayers (2011 Centipede Press), 8th of 17 stories in BM
~ L.W. Claflin, “Thunder in the Darkness”, ‘Joe Stannard & road construction gang’, only appearance in BM
~ Eugene Cunningham, “Passing Through”, 1st of 2 Westerns with Pony Kerr, 6th of 14 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “Merger with Death”, 47th of 53 with Race Williams, 59th of 71 appearances in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Top Comes Off”, 2nd of 6 stories with attorney Ken Corning, ‘fighting young lawyer’, 66th of 99 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Red Pavement”, 11th of 15 stories with ‘tough dick Donahue of Interstate’, reprinted in The Arbor House Treasury of Detective & Mystery Stories from the Great Pulps (1983), reprinted in Tough as Nails (2012, Altus), 43 of 67 stories in BM
~ Joseph T. Shaw, “Fugitive”, last of 4 parts, “Jack Henderson, set in Far East, e.g., Rangoon”, Shaw’s last appearance of fiction in BM
~ Theodore A. Tinsley, “Park Avenue Item”, ‘3rd (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’, 3rd of 26 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[image updated 12/27/25]

better image than previously posted
cover art by C.W. Svensson
~ Frank Bisson, “The Betel”, ‘South Seas’, only story in BM
~ Ben Lucien Burman, “The Needle of Osiris”, 2nd and last story in BM
~ Tom Curry, “Buck”, 4th of 23 with Macnamara (Mac), NYPD 1st grade dick, with ‘Buck, safecracker’, 7th of 39 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “South Sea Steel”, 13th of 53 with Race ‘Williams in the South Seas’, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015), 21st of 71 appearances in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Thisissosudden!”, 8th of 73 with Ed Jenkins, 15th of 99 stories in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “Walls Have Ears”, ‘Manhunters; 47th & last piece by CS in series which began in Feb 1923 issue’ [Haggeman notes this is the last of 47 but lists 49 total by CS, 2 of which are not Manhunters], last of 49 pieces in Haggeman and in BM
~ John Stanton, “A Fortune at Stake”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ J. Paul Suter, “The Terror by Night”, pt. 2 of 2, 9th of 15 stories with The Reverend McGregor Daunt, ‘clergyman by profession and detective by choice’, 13th of 19 appearances in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop