
aka Erle Stanley Gardner
1949 Morrow hardcover, 12th in the series with private eyes Bertha Cool and Donald Lam
cover art by Mike Ludlow

aka Erle Stanley Gardner
1949 Morrow hardcover, 12th in the series with private eyes Bertha Cool and Donald Lam
cover art by Mike Ludlow

cover art by Rafael DeSoto
better image than previously posted
Robert Martin, “Death Gives a Permanent Wave” (PI Jim Bennett)
D.L. Champion, “Slaying Room Only!”
John D. MacDonald, “Oh, Give Me a Hearse”
Charles Larson, “Covet and Kill”
Richard E. Glendinning, “Invitation to Hell”
Paula Elliot, “Murder is Too Personal“
Frank Ward, “Nightmare Alley”


cover art by Raymond S. Pease
~ Dwight V. Babcock, “The Widow Regrets”, 1st of 7 Beeker (“Beek”) stories, 15th of 21 stories in BM
~ Thomas W. Duncan, “The Cat and the Corpse”, ‘Dan Macey’, author’s only story in BM
~ Steve Fisher, “No Gentleman Strangles His Wife”, ‘Kip I. Muldane, p.i. in Hawaiian’, 2nd of 9 stories in BM
~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Blood in the Fog”, 31st of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, ‘Black Burton in London’, 38th of 39 stories in BM
~ Roger Torrey, “Relative Trouble”, ‘Shean Connell, private peep; last of 4 SC stories’, 32nd of 50 appearances in BM
~ Cornell Woolrich, “After-Dinner Story”, 9th of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[updated 1/26/26]

better image than previously posted
Carroll John Daly, “Gangman ’s Gallows” (Race Williams)
Raymond Chandler, “Trouble is My Business ” (John Dalmas)
Edward Ronns, “Three Doors to Doom”
O.B. Myers, “Fire and Ice”
Hugh B. Cave, “Deal from the Bottom”
D.L. Champion, “Laughter in Hell”


cover art by L.L. Balcom
most contents the same as US Sept. 1924
~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “The Dragon Fly”, 14th of 29 stories in BM [US Jan.’23]
~ Royce Brier, “Black and Blue”, ‘set in Mexico’, last of 5 stories in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Accommodatin’ a Lady”, 1st of 10 Bob Larkin stories, 1st person narrator, author’s first appearance in BM under this name (see June, 1924), 2nd of 99 stories in BM
~ Dashiell Hammett, “Women, Politics and Murder”, the Op [11th of 25], reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), in The Girl with the Silver Eyes: The Complete Black Mask Cases of the Continental Op, vol.2 (Steeger, 2023), 18th of 51 stories in BM
~ Francis James, “The Long Hand of Middleton”, Prentice, Harvard-trained criminologist turned policeman, 16th of 20 appearances in BM
~ Jud Pierce, “Sunrise”, ‘short-short’, author’s only appearance in BM
~ Ray Raymond, “The Curse of the Long Tooth”, ‘South Seas mystery’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “The Rough Diamond”, 33rd of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 34th of 49 total articles in BM
~ George A. Wright, “The Mountain Comes to Mohammad”, author’s only appearance in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[updated with US cover 5/29/26]

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
