May 1, 1934 issue
cover art by John Howitt
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“Read ‘Em and Weep” (Cardigan) by Frederick Nebel
“The Smoking Corpse” (Edward Delane, lawyer) by Erle Stanley Gardner
“The Duchess of Death” (Jones & Jones) by Maxwell Hawkins
“Hot Money” (Johnny Cass) by R.D. Torrey
“Zero Hour” (Willy Hansen) by Anson Hatch
also includes letter from Carroll John Daly announcing new radio program featuring his character Vee Brown
1960 Popular Library paperback original, second of two books with Johnny Amsterdam
Michael Lawrence was one of the pseudonyms used by Lawrence Lariar
cover art attributed to Ted CoConis
The city's different at night. The air smells better. It's harder to see that the oil rigs outnumber the palm trees and it's almost like the good old days. At least the way I'd
like to remember them. Stay in this business long enough and every street leads to a place you'd like to forget. Every case brings back memories of what might have been, and every skirt reminds you of another woman.
Or, if you've got it bad enough, the same woman.
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sequel to Chinatown, written by Robert Towne, directed by Jack Nicholson
poster illustration by Rodriquez
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~ Curtis Cluff, “Leave Killings to the Cops”, last of 3 with Honolulu PI Johnny Ford, 1st person-narrator, 3rd of 4 stories in BM
~ Norman A. Daniels, “License to Kill “, Stacy Tucker, PI, last of 4 stories in BM
~ Richard Deming, “A Shot in the Arm”, Manville “Manny” Moon, 1st-person narrator, 2nd of 6 stories in BM
~ Paul W. Fairman, “Big-Time Operator”, ‘young guy (1st-person narrator) getting into the rackets, reprinted, The Hard-Boiled Detective (1977)’, author’s only appearance in BM
~ William Campbell Gault, “Don’t Bet on Death”, ‘Cary Vaughn & Ned Orlow, private eyes’, 7th of 9 stories in BM
~ W. Lee Herrington, [also published in BM as Alan Farley], “Bury Me Last”, ‘Barney Moffatt, D.A.’s office’, 3rd of 4 stories under this name in BM
~ Victor K. Ray, “Eeeney-Meeny-Money –Murder!”, ‘Bill Baldwin, nightclub bookkeeper, 1st person-narrator’, author’s only appearance in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[images updated 6/11/25, post updated 1/29/26, 2/28/26]
May 1965 Pocket paperback original, first printing
cover art by Barye Phillips
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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
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cover art by Robert Maguire
1965 Pocket reissue (7th printing, October of ’65)
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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]
January 1948 issue
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cover art by Peter Stevens
~ Curtis Cluff, “Snow at Waikiki”, 1st of 3 with Honolulu PI Johnny Ford, ‘1st-person narrator, ‘snow=heroin’, 1st of 4 stories in BM
~ Merle Constiner, “Bury Me Not”, ‘Luther McGavock, private detective; he works for Atherton Browne who heads a Memphis-based agency, last 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), last of 12 stories in BM
~ Norman A. Daniels, “Death is No Stranger”, Rick Trent, ex-PI, ex-con, 1st person narrator, 3rd of 4 stories in BM
~ Robert C. Dennis, “Murder Tops the Cast”, 4th of 6 with ‘William (Willie) Carmody, Confidential Investigations & Margaret O’Leary, writer, Hollywood, WC is first-person narrator’, 4th of 10 stories in BM
~ C.P. Donnel, Jr., “Keep the Killing Quiet”, ‘1st-person narrator’, last of 20 stories in BM
~ George F. Kull, “Red Christmas”, ‘in Reno‘, 1st of 2 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[updated 2/28/26]
1946 William Morrow, first edition.
Geoffrey Homes, Build My Gallows High, 1946 Morrow hardcover
1956 Ace Double paperback reissue
cover art by Harry Barton
basis for the 1947 film noir classic Out of the Past
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[post updated 7/3/25]
SMB Noir 
