john ayotte – SMB Noir

October 1, 1923 issue ~ cover art by John Decker

October 1, 1923 issue

cover art by John Decker

~ John Ayotte, “The Black Cracksman”, ‘A white Hawaiian thrill’, 6^th of 10 stories in BM

~ Eustace Hale Ball, “Grandfather’s Will”, 8^th of 13 stories in BM

~ ‘Peter Collinson’ (Dashiell Hammett), “Arson Plus”, ‘1^st Continental Op story & billed as ‘full of fire’; see p, 127 for letter by DH’, 3^rd of 4 stories under this name, reprinted in The Arbor House Treasury of Detective & Mystery Stories from the Great Pulps (1983), reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010)

~ Donald Feak, “Black Commandments”, ‘South Seas Tale’, 2nd of 3 stories in BM

~ Newton A. Fuessle, “The Purple Mask”, ‘Kenneth Fuessle and Newton may be the same writer’, 2^nd of 2 stories under this name

~ Robert Russell, “Greggs Over-Reaches”, last of 3 stories in BM

~ Harry Simon, “The Man Who Passed Judgment”, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Charles Somerville, “The Sleepless Eye”, 16th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series

~ Willett Stockard, “Hutch Blood”, ‘billed as “a Black Mask weirdity”’, 4th of 5 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

February 1, 1924 issue ~ cover art by Onestus Uzzell

February 1, 1924 issue

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’, 8^th 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’, 8^th 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 [3^rd 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”, 5^th 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”, 1^st of 2 stories in BM

~ Herman Petersen, “That Yellow Devil”, 1^st 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

[cover updated 11/8/25]

October 1925 issue ~ cover art by H.C. Murphy

October 1925 issue

cover art by H.C. Murphy

~John Ayotte, “Hawaiian Driftage”, ‘opium ring in Honolulu: some characters from “The Puzzle of Hook Nam”, JA’s last appearance in BM’

~ Ray(mond King) Cummings, “The Mystery at Cragmoor”, only non-McGuirk story (see Apr 23), 14^th of 15 stories in BM

~ Tom Curry, “The Frame-Up”, author’s 1^st of 39 stories in BM

~ Carroll John Daly, “Alias Buttercup”, 10^th of 53 with RW, ‘Race Williams in Mexico’, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015), 18th of 71 appearances in BM

~ Joseph Gollomb, “A Pass Key to Scotland Yard”, 3rd of 6 articles

~ Donald MacGregor, “The Dancer in the East”, 5th of 10 stories

~ Charles Somerville, “A Weird Detective”, 44th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 46^th of 49 total articles in BM