Andrew Holt, “A Bier for Belinda”
Ennen Reaves Hall, “Dime-a-Dance Corpse”
John D. Fitzgerald, “The Merchants of Penance”
John D. MacDonald, “Bury the Pieces!”
Ken Lewis, “The Moon Was Black”
Cyril Plunkett, “The Judas Touch”
Dale Clark, “Look Alive—You’re Dead!” (Socrates Bean)
cover art by John Fleming Gould
better image than previously posted
T.T. Flynn, “The Devil’s Derby” (Mr. Maddox)
Raymond Chandler, “Pearls are a Nuisance”
Fred MacIsaac, “Murder at the Beauty Show” (Rambler Murphy)
John Lawrence, “Old Wives’ Tale” (Marquis of Broadway)
Dale Clark, “Mercy Killing”
with a simple listing of his name on the cover, along with those of his colleagues, the editors could not have been aware that they were publishing one of Raymond Chandler’s masterpieces. The Big Sleep had been published just two months before, on February 6.
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
~ Frances Beck, “Dig Down Deep”, only story in BM
~ Anthony Boucher [pseud. of William Anthony Parker White], “The Catalyst”, only story by Boucher in BM
~ D.L. Champion, “Spend, Killer, Spend”, 18th of 26 with Rex Sackler, reprinted in Murder Costs Money: The Complete Black Mask Stories of Rex Sackler (Steeger, 2020), 20th of 30 stories in BM
~ Dale Clark, “Open and Shut”, 21st of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 24th of 32 stories in BM
~ Julius Long, “The Witch of Endor County”, 6th of 17 stories with ‘Ben Corbett, D.A.’s chief investigator, 1st -person narrator’, 11th of 23 stories in BM
~ Henry Norton, “Here’s Homicide”, ‘Barney & Brownie, writers of a smash-hit radio whodunnit show with same name’, 5th of 6 stories in BM
~ Michael Sutton, “Jail Will Be Lonely”, Steve Duncan, hotel bouncer, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Fergus Truslow, “Death on Ice”, ‘Hendricks, rookie cop in L.A’, 1st of 6 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[updated and corrected 1/29/26]
cover art by Tom Lovell
better image than previously posted
Arthur Leo Zagat, Girl for the Torture God
Dale Clark, “Death’s Painted Priestess”
Paul Ernst, Satan’s Servant
Emerson Graves. “Come with Me to Hell!”
Roger Howard Norton, “Desire of the Undead”
Wyatt Blassingame, My Love Brings Death!
Arthur J. Burks, Invitation to the Morgue
William B. Rainey, “Prey of the Beast-Woman”
cover art by Albert Drake
better image than previously posted
~ Dale Clark, “The Corpse with the Bloody Nose”, last of 28 O’Hanna stories, last of 32 appearances in BM
~ Merle Constiner, “Dead on Arrival”, ‘Luther McGavock, private detective; he works Atherton Browne who heads a Memphis-based agency, 10th of 11 of the McG stories; usually rural setting’, reprinted in Let the Dead Alone: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Luther McGavock (Steeger, 2020), 11th of 12 stories in BM
~ Robert C. Dennis, “Out of This World”, 2nd of 6 with ‘William (Willie) Carmody, Confidential Investigations & Margaret O’Leary, writer, Hollywood, WC is first-person narrator’, 2nd of 10 stories in BM
~ William Campbell Gault, “A Murder for Mac”, reprinted in Hot-House Homicide: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Mortimer Jones (Steeger, 2925), 2nd of 5 with PI Mortimer Jones, 3rd of 9 stories in BM
~ Coleman Meyer, “You’ll Never Grow Old”, ‘Hill Cartright, auto racer, tells it’, author’s 1st of 2 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
