private eye – SMB Noir

January 1943 issue ~ cover art by Rafael DeSoto

January 1943 issue

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

~ Merle Constiner, “Why Meddle with Murder?”, ‘Luther McGavock, private detective; he works Atherton Browne who heads a Memphis-based agency, 3rd of 11 of the McG stories; usually rural setting’, reprinted in Let the Dead Alone: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Luther McGavock (Steeger, 2020), 3^rd of 12 stories in BM

~ George Harmon Coxe, “Blood on the Lens”, part 1 of 3 of Murder for Two (novel published 1943), 25th of 27 with Flashgun Casey, 29th of 31 stories in BM

~ C.P. Donnel, Jr., “Don’t Stand Under the Blackjack Tree”, 12th of 16 with Colonel Walter (Doc) Rennie, USA Medical Corps, 12^th of 20 stories in BM

~ Alan Farley [pseudonym of Mrs. W. Lee Herrington], “Buttered on Both Sides”, 2^nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Tom Marvin, “Bag o’Bones”, ‘1^st person narrator is a 23-year-old small town sheriff’, 1^st of 3 stories

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

August 1936 issue ~ cover art by John Drew

August 1936 issue

cover art by John Drew

better image than previously posted

~ W.T. Ballard, “Fugitive for Justice”, 4^th of 7 with ‘Red Drake, undercover investigator for the State Racing Commission, 1^st-person narrator’, 20^th of 43 stories in BM

~ John K. Butler, “You Can’t Bribe Bullets”, ‘Marty Lewis, 1^st person-narrator, & shady local politics’, 4^th of 11 stories in BM

~ James Duncan, “Heir to Murder”, ‘Jerry Blaze’, 4^th of 10 stories in BM

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Homicide Cue”, 27th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, 34th of 39 stories in BM

~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Deep Red”, last of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, reprinted in Winter Kill: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kennedy, v.4 (Altus, 2013), last of 66 original stories in BM (plus reprints from outside BM)

~ Roger Torrey, “Border Blockade”, ‘4th (of 5) of George Killeen, private ‘tec in L.A., & 1^st-person narrator; with Lieutenant McFee, Homicide’, ‘California, i.e., Mexican border’, 20th of 50 appearances in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

Shell Scott x 3

pseudonym of Richard S. Prather

1952 Graphic paperback original – better image than previously posted

reissued as The Scrambled Yeggs

1958 Gold Medal reissue

undated Fawcett reissue – cover art by Robert McGinnis

November 1936 issue ~ cover art by Malvin Singer

November 1936 issue

cover art by Malvin Singer

November 1936 issue

cover art by Malvin Singer

better image than previously posted

Frederick Nebel, “Make Mine Murder” (Cardigan), reprinted in The Complete Casebook of Cardigan, Vol. 4 (Altus Press, 2012)

Leslie T. White, “So You Won’t Talk, Eh?” (Duke Martindel)

Erle Stanley Gardner, “Two Sticks of Death” (Small, Weston & Burke)

Fred MacIsaac, “The Corpse in the Taxicab” (Rainbow Murphy)

“The Tongueless Men”

– Chapter 1: John Lawrence, “The Blonde with the Purple Tongue”

– Chapter 2: T.T. Flynn, “The Vanishing Prelate”

– Chapter 3: Carroll John Daly, “The Broken Bank”

– Chapter 4: Frederick C. Davis, “The Lost Stairway”

– Chapter 5: Warren E. Barrett, “Only Two Swords”

[Taylor notes in his Companion: ” This is the fifth anniversary issue. To celebrate, a contest was built around a round-robin story, ‘The Tongueless Men’, where readers were supposed to identify which writer did each chapter.“]