
1957 Simon and Schuster hardcover, this the 1960 softcover reprint.
Quentin was the pseudonym Hugh Wheeler
back cover says the cover art is by Robert McGuire but it doesn’t look like his work.

1957 Simon and Schuster hardcover, this the 1960 softcover reprint.
Quentin was the pseudonym Hugh Wheeler
back cover says the cover art is by Robert McGuire but it doesn’t look like his work.

cover art by Rafael DeSoto
~ W.T. Ballard, “Lights, Action – Killer!”, 27th and last Lennox story in BM, 40th of 43 stories in BM
~ D.L. Champion, “Blood from a Turnip”, 8th of 26 with Sackler, reprinted in Murder Costs Money: The Complete Black Mask Stories of Rex Sackler (Steeger, 2020), 9th of 30 stories in BM.
~ Dale Clark, “Murder is No Joke”, 9th of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 11th of 32 stories in BM
~ Norbert Davis, “Don’t Cry for Me”, 1st of 3 with Hollywood piano man John Collins, 10th of 13 stories in BM
~ C.P. Donnell, Jr., “Death of the Party ”, 9th of 16 with Colonel Walter (Doc) Rennie, USA Medical Corps psychiatrist, 9th of 20 stories in BM
~ Cornell Woolrich, “Dormant Account”, 19th of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

better image than previously posted
cover art by Fred Craft
~ W.T. Ballard, “Snatching Is Dynamite”, ‘Lennox & ‘The Secret Five’ of Hollywood’, 9th of 27 BM stories with ‘Bill Lennox, troubleshooter for Consolidated Films’, 9th of 43 stories in BM
~ Raymond Chandler, “Finger Man”, “Finger Man”, unnamed LA PI, first person narrator, first book appearance in the collection The Simple Art of Murder (Houghton Mifflin hardcover, 1950), first paperback, Trouble is My Business (Pocket, 10/51), various paperback editions, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (Vintage, 2007), 3rd of 11 stories in BM
~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Immunity Murders”, 21th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, with his wife Vivian, 28th of 39 stories in BM
~ Horace McCoy, “Somebody Must Die”, last of 14 Frost stories with ‘Capt. Jerry Frost, Texas (Air) Ranger, last of 17 appearances in BM
~ Thomas Walsh, “Best Man”, ‘Carver, plain-clothesman, Homicide; reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Omnibus (1946)’, 4th of 6 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[updated 1/25/26]

better image than previously posted
cover art by Onestus Uzzell
~ Carl Asher, “And This Is How It Is”, ‘short story; “a satire”’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ John Ayotte, “Rifles”, ‘Capt. Ayotte has departed Hawaii in fact & fiction’, 8th of 10 stories in BM
~ Ray(mond King) Cummings, “T. McGuirk, Movie Actor”, ‘8th of 14 McGuirk stories, billed as “the quaintest character in the Underworld” & honest, more of less’, 8th of 15 stories in BM
~ Charles M. Green [pseud. of Erle Stanley Gardner], “The Verdict”, last of 3 stories in BM under this name
~ Dashiell Hammett, “Night Shots”, ‘the Op [3rd of 22] or as BM bills him ‘Mr. Hammett’s nameless detective’, 6th of 45 stories in BM
~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “The Sandalwood Box”, 5th of 10 with ‘Captain Valentine, that ‘attractive European scalawag’, adventurer and rascal’, 21th of 29 stories in BM
~Jennings Perry, “The Master of the Maisie”, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Herman Petersen, “That Yellow Devil”, 1st of 2 parts, ‘Madame Pinar, Eurasian’, 16th of 20 stories in BM
~ Henry Serrano, “The Ghost of the Hesperides”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Don Cameron Shafer, “The Hunters”, ‘tiger-hunting in India’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “The ‘Cat’ Detective’, 24th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series
~ Edward Parrish Ware, “The Kid’s Hole Card”, ‘Western’, 3rd of 9 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[cover updated 11/8/25]

Parole Breakers #1 (Avon, 1951)

1948 Morrow hardcover as Dead Level
1950 Avon paperback reissue with new title

1969 Signet paperback, third printing
cover art by Robert McGinnis