cover art by Samuel Cherry
better image than previously posted
Peter Paige, “A Little Corpse Who Wasn’t There”
John Whiting, “Death Sends Orchids”
H.H. Stinson, “Rancho el Maniac”
D.L. Champion, “A Hound for Murder” (Mariano Mercado)
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
~ D.L. Champion, “The Brand of Abel”, ‘desert setting’, 3rd of 30 stories in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Jade Sanctuary”, 68th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘reader points out discrepancy in this story in Feb ’41 issue, p. 29’, 95th of 100 appearances in BM
~ Eaton K. Goldthwaite, “The Veiled Vampire”, ‘Duke Brian & Franny Steinmetz, ‘ex-felons from Philly’, now private dicks, more or less, Brian narrates’, 3rd of 5 stories in BM
~ Harvey Howard, “Red Friday”, see 2/1940 for H.F. Howard: Hagemann says ‘entirely possible HH and HFH one and the same’
~ Jim Kjelgaard, “Backfire”, ‘short-short; wilderness setting’, 3rd of 6 stories in BM
~ Stewart Sterling, “Coat of Many Killers”, 2nd of 9 stories with ‘Special Squad (safe-and-loft)’, 5th of 12 stories under this name in BM [Sterling and Stirling were pen names of Nathaniel Prentice Winchell, 20 total stories in BM]
~ H.H. Stinson, “North of the Border”, 9th of 14 with ‘Ken O’Hara, fighting reporter on Los Angeles Tribune’, 15th of 27 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by Edgar A. Whitney
better image than previously posted
~Robert Arthur, “Too Much Static”, ‘patrol cop’, 1st of 2 appearances in BM but only original story to appear
~Maurice Beam, “Ham Strung”, small-town hardware store owner, 1st-person narrator (thought to be possibly a pseud. of Robert Leslie Bellem), 4th of 7 under this name in BM
~ Wyatt Blassingame, “Some Call It Murder”, 1st with Bishop, pegged-legged political writer for a Southern newspaper, 1st of 6 in series, 2nd of 8 stories in BM
~ Peter Paige, “Voodoo Frame”, ‘Cash Wale, 1st person narrator, employee in Moonglow, an amusement park’, 3rd of 12 stories in BM
~ William B. Rainey, “The Garden of Violent Death”, ‘Philip Dumaine, New Orleans private gumshoe & Negro sidekick, Ben Bolt’, pseudonym of Wyatt Blassingame, only appearance in BM under this name
~ H.H. Stinson, “This Murder’s On Me”, ‘Van Hogan, Worldwide Agency dick, 1st -person narrator’, 13th of 27 stories in BM
~ Roger Torrey, “Death Calls the Hand”, ‘13th (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’, ‘ see p. 81 for letter from RT on story’, 41st of 50 appearances in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by Raphael DeSoto
better image than previously posted
~ Cleve F. Adams, “Nobody Loves Cops”, ‘Engelhardt & Dewey, Car 97, LA’, 5th of 6 stories in BM
~ W.T. Ballard, “Not in the Script”, 24th of 27 stories with ‘Bill Lennox, troubleshooter for Consolidated Films’, 37th of 43 stories in BM
~ Wyatt Blassingame, “The Bishop and the Tinkling Belle”, 4th of 6 stories with The Bishop, political writer on a Southern newspaper, 60ish and peg-legged, ‘young Eddie narrates’, 6th of 8 stories in BM
~ Jim Kjelgaard, “Curse of the Beaver”, ‘again, the wilderness’, 4th of 6 stories in BM
~ H.H. Stinson, “Calling All Hearses”, 10th of 14 with ‘Ken O’Hara, fighting reporter on Los Angeles Tribune’, 16th of 27 stories in BM
~ C.G. Tahney, [pseud of Charles Green, not to be confused with Charles M. Green], “Murder in Ten Easy Lessons”, Nickie, aka ‘Sherlock in short pants’, 2nd of 5 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by John Drew
~ Baynard H(ardwick) Kendrick, “Fish to Fry”, 1st of 14 stories with Mikes Standish (Stan) Rice, ‘The Hungry’[?], all set in Florida, author’s debut in BM
~ John Onslow, “The Damned Rookie”, ‘Larry Brogan, rookie cop’, 2nd of 2 stories in BM
~ H.H. Stinson, “Lay Off, O’Hara”, 4th of 14 with ‘Ken O’Hara, fighting reporter on Los Angeles Tribune’, 5th of 27 stories in BM
~ MacAllister Street, “$1000 a Day”, ‘Hade, private ‘tec’, only appearance in BM
~ Roger Torrey, “Murder’s Never Funny”, ‘3rd (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’, 25th of 50 appearances in BM
~ Donald Wandrei, “The Rod and the Staff”, ‘short-short’, 1st of 6 stories in BM
~ Cornell Woolrich, “Murder on the Night Boat”, ‘police dick on honeymoon; Sergeant James Q. Bradford’, 2nd of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by J. George Janes
~ W.T. Ballard, “Death in the Zoo”, 32nd of 43 stories in BM
~ Maurice Beam, “Death Swing”, ‘stunt fliers’,(thought to possibly be a pseud. of Robert Leslie Bellem), 2nd of 7 with this name in BM
~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “Framed for Hanging”, 28th of 29 stories in BM
~ Stewart Sterling (pseud. of Prentice Winchell), “Kill a Man Dead”, 2nd of 3 stories with Vince Mallie, 2nd of 12 stories
~ H.H. Stinson, “Murder Sweepstakes”, 7th of 14 with ‘Ken O’Hara, fighting reporter on Los Angeles Tribune’, ‘see pg. 7 for letter from HHS about O’H’, 12th of 27 stories in BM
~ Cornell Woolrich, “Borrowed Crime”, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 11th of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
better image than previously posted
~ Dale Clark, “The Early Corpse Gets the Worm”, 25th of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 28th of 32 stories in BM
~ Harry Epstein, “The Case of the Mind-Reading Seal”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Julius Long, “Murder By the Carton”, 12th of 17 stories with ’Ben Corbett, D.A.’s chief investigator, 1st -person narrator’, 17th of 23 stories in BM
~ James R. McKenna, “Caliente”, short-short, horse racing, 1st person narrator, author’s only appearance in BM
~ Robert Martin, “Rat Race in Foxtown”, ‘Foxtown is 45 miles SW of Cleveland’, 1st of 8 stories in BM
~ Jim T. Pearce, “Always Leave ‘Em Dying”, author’s sold appearance in BM
~ William Rough, “My Gun Hires Legitimate”, ‘Ben Slabbe, p.i., who has his own agency; 3rd of 5 capers’ in BM
~ H.H. Stinson, “Unholy Matrimony”, 23rd of 27 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[US cover updated 1/29/26]
SMB Noir 