2nd book with Gramps Wiggins
cover art by Wayne Blickenstaff
1961 Pocket reissue – cover art by Charles Binger
better image than previously posted
1963 Horwitz edition from Australia
1963 British edition from Penguin
cover art by Sheila Perry
cover art by J. W. Schlaikjer
better image than previously posted
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Chinatown Murder”, 49th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘Chinese frequently spoken’, 70th of 99 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Farewell to Crime”, 21st of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, reprinted in Too Young to Die: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kennedy, v.3 (Altus, 2013), 46 of 67 stories in BM
~ Norvell Page, “Black Harvest”, ‘last of 3 Jules Tremaine stories; Manhattan and Little Italy; (ed. note) a projected & potentially important series that never developed’ [Hagemann doesn’t explain his editor’s note], only these 3 stories in BM. Reprinted in Black Harvest: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Jules Tremaine (Steeger Books, 2021).
~ William Rollins, Jr., “K.O. and the Killers”, 3rd of 4 stories with ‘Kenneth Osborne from ‘No’th Cah’lina’; 1st person narrator’, 20th of 23 stories in BM
~ H.H. Stinson, “Give the Man Rope”, 1st of 14 with ‘Ken O’Hara, fighting reporter on Los Angeles Tribune’, debut and 1st of 27 stories in BM
~ Roger Torrey, “The Case-Hardened Samaritan”, 2nd of 11 with Dal Prentice, Magna City police dick, ‘one tough guy’, ‘Prentice – “hard when it comes to handling killers”, reprinted in The Case-Hardened Samaritan: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Dal Prentice, Vol. 1, 3rd of 50 appearances in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by Robert McGinis
1960 WDL paperback original from Britain
cover art by Edgar Hodges based on the McGinnis
cover art by Fred Scotwood
better image than previously posted
1941 Morrow hardcover, his 5th with private eyes Bertha Cool and Donald Lam
1953 Morrow hardcover
1962 Great Pan reissue – cover art by Harry Sheldon
44th Perry Mason novel
better image than previously posted
cover art by J. W. Schlaikjer
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Crime Crusher”, 32th Ed Jenkins & his wife Helen Chadwick, 1st of a 3-part story, 49th of 99 stories in BM
~ Dashiell Hammett, “Dagger Point”, Ned Beaumont, 3rd of 4 stories that will go together to make up The Glass Key (published 1931), 43rd of 45 stories in BM
~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Slowdown Hands”, 14th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, 18th of 39 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Street Wolf”, ’Napoleon Damiani, gangster’, 23 of 67 stories in BM
~ Reuben Jennings Shay, “Backfire”, 1st of 2 in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
9th with private eye team Bertha Cool and Donald Lam
August 1950 issue ~ cover art by Rudolph Belarski
published in 1951 by Heinemann in London as An Axe to Grind. this the 1960 Australian edition by Horowitz
cover art by Harry Bennett
better image than previously posted
41st Perry Mason novel
cover photo of Ellen Burstyn by Silver Studios
1961 Great Pan edition from the UK – cover art by Sam Peffer
November 1962 Pocket reissue, 5th printing
cover art Robert McGinnis
better image than previously posted
better image than previously posted
cover art by Fred Craft
~ John L. Chambliss, “The Contact”, NYC PI Schuyler Blake, only appearance in BM
~ Raymond Chandler, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot”, his debut in BM, his first published writing, 1st of 2 with PI Mallory, 1st of 11 stories in BM, first book appearance in Five Murderers (Avon digest, 1944), reprinted in Red Wind (Tower hc, 1946), The Smell of Fear (Hamish Hamilton/UK hc, 1965), Midnight Raymond Chandler (Houghton Mifflin hc, 1971), The Black Mask Boys (Morrow, 1985)
~ Eugene Cunningham, “Chalk”, 2nd of 5 with undercover Texas Ranger Cleve Corby, 8th of 14 stories in BM
~ Tom Curry, “Clancy Takes the Air”, Clancy, NYPD 1st grade dick, author’s last of 39 stories in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Dead Men’s Shoes”, 53th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘The Phantom Crook’ with Ngat T’oy, 77th of 99 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Murder Again”, ‘L.A. County dicks; Hollywood story’, 65th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
SMB Noir 
