
1957 Pocket reissue
cover art by Clyde Ross
better image than previously posted

March 1950 Pocket paperback, first printing
cover painting by Harvey Kidder

first in the long-running and deservedly respected Lew Archer series by Kenneth Millar, aka Ross Macdonald. After using his father’s name as the pen name for this novel, he was forced by John D. MacDonald to alter it for future novels, and Ross Macdonald was born.
1959, third printing
cover art by Jerry Allison

1990 Warner edition
cover art by Gary Kelley
[updated 9/6/25 ~ all copies mine]

November 1960 Pocket paperback reissue, fifth printing
cover art by Charles Binger?
better image than previously posted

London: Hamish Hamilton, 1964. First UK Edition, preceding all others. The first collection of these stories.
“Killer in the Rain” (Black Mask Magazine, Jan. 1935)
“The Man Who Liked Dogs” (Black Mask Magazine, Mar. 1936)
“The Curtain” (Black Mask Magazine, Sept. 1936)
“Try the Girl” (Black Mask Magazine, Jan. 1937)
“Mandarin’s Jade” (Dime Detective Magazine, Nov. 1937)
“Bay City Blues” (Dime Detective Magazine, June 1938)
“The Lady in the Lake” (Dime Detective Magazine, Jan. 1939)
“No Crime in the Mountains”(Detective Story Magazine, Sept. 1941)
introduction by Philip Durham

1st Pocket edition, December 1965

June 1973 Bantam reissue
cover art by Tom Adams


July 1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd print
cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie

1979 Pan/Macmillan reissue – cover photo by Robert Golden
[post reworked 7/4/25, 3/1/26]

cover art by Tom Dunn
better image than previously posted

cover art by Robert Maguire


1965 Pocket reissue (7th printing, October of ’65)
better image than previously posted

June 1973 Ballantine reissue*
cover art by Tom Adams

1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd print*
cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie

cover art credited to Richard Waldrep
“Pickup On Noon Street” (Detective Fiction Weekly, May 1936, originally titled “Noon Street Nemesis”)
“Smart-Aleck Kill” (Black Mask Magazine, July 1934)
“Guns at Cyrano’s” (Black Mask Magazine, Jan. 1936)
“Nevada Gas” (Black Mask Magazine, June 1936)
these stories were first gathered into a book in 1950, Houghton Mifflin’s The Simple Art of Murder
[*covers from owner’s own copies]
[updated 6/6/25]

cover art by James Meese
better image than previously posted


December 1957 Cardinal paperback reissue, first printing
cover painting by Mitchell Hooks
better image than previously posted

cover art by Robert McGinnis
1958 Morrow hardcover, first edition of the 55th Perry Mason novel

June 1960 Pocket paperback reissue, first printing
cover art by Charles Binger?
better image than previously posted

June 1964 Pocket reissue, 6th printing
cover art by Robert McGinnis
better image than previously posted



1953 Laurie publication, this the later, 1955, Pocket paperback

February 1959 Cardinal paperback reissue, first printing
cover painting by John Fernie
better image than previously posted

November 1963 Pocket paperback reissue, 8th printing
cover painting by Robert McGinnis

better image than previously posted