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
better image than previously posted
[post updated 7/3/25]
cover art by Norman Saunders
Robert Martin, “I’ll Be Killing You” (Jim Bennett)
Robert Turner, “Homicidal Hitchhiker”
E.A. Morris, “Fist for a Fighting Fool”
Russell Branch, “If the Frame Fits”
Don James, “Sing a Song of Slaughter” (PI Pete Johns)
Bert Sims,“No Time to Kill” (Hawkshaw Morgan)
Alvin Yudkoff, “You Gotta Die Right”
adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s 1940 novel Farewell, My Lovely, his second novel with LA PI Philip Marlowe
Charles Raab art
Digest containing comic-formatted stories. Considered to be one of the very first graphic novels ever produced.
better image than previously posted
cover art by J. W. Schlaikjer
~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “Red Hemp”, Jo Gar, 3rd of 24 stories in BM, reprinted in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Bar (Altus Press, 2013)
~ J. J. Des Ormeaux, “Murderer’s Night”, ‘modern Western; 1st-person narrator,’ 1st of 5 stories in BM, (pseudonym of Forrest Rosaire)
~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Cyclone Shot”, Ned Beaumont, 2nd of 4 stories that will go together to make up The Glass Key (published 1931), 42nd of 45 stories in BM
~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Your Play, Gentlemen”, 13th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, ‘Burton in NYC, features Kyoto Kara, a Japanese’, 17th of 39 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Wise Guy”, 10th of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy ’& the usual company’, reprinted in Winter Kill: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kenney, v.2 (Altus, 2013), 22 of 67 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Killers’ Show”, Mal Ourney, last of 5 stories, ‘The Crime Breeders’, presented as separate stories rather than conventional serial’, published in hardcover in 1930 by Knopf as Green Ice, 39th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
1978 Random House first edition hardcover, a modern classic
cover illustration by Stan Zagorowoski
1st novel with private eye C.W. Sughrue with begins with the masterful and oft-quoted sentence: “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.”
1947 Simon and Schuster hardcover
Kane’s debut novel and debut of Chambers
better image than previously posted
1950 Boardman hardcover from Britain – cover art by Denis McLoughlin
Kane’s first with private eye (Kane preferred “private Richard”) Peter Chambers, a 1947 Simon & Schuster hardcover. The title was changed for the revised 1956 Avon softcover.
cover art by Ray Johnson
1955 Boardman paperback – Denis McLoughlin cover art
1960 Avon reissue – cover art by Ray Johnson
better image than previously posted
1957 Pyramid paperback original
cover art by Harry Schaare
first of eleven with private eye Honey West
better image than previously posted
cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer
better image than previously posted
~ Guthrie Brown, “Stalemate”, ‘Western lynching’, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “Shooting Out of Town”, 37th of 53 with Race Williams who ‘goes out of town on a gun job’, 49thof 71 appearances in BM
~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “Nagasaki Bound”, 1st half of Jo Gar story, 6th of 24 stories in BM, reprinted in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Bar (Altus Press, 2013)
~ J. J. Des Ormeaux, “The Dago Trick”, ‘crook tale’, 2nd of 5 stories in BM (pseudonym of Forrest Rosaire)
~ Joseph Harrington, “Footloose Goes Astray”, ‘Western’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Shake-Down”, 12th of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, reprinted in Winter Kill: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kenney, v.2 (Altus, 2013), 25 of 67 stories in BM
~ Earl and Marion Scott, “Bullets for Murder”, 4th of 6 stories with ‘Phil Craleigh, once brilliant lawyer, now a drunk, given to bouts of reform’, million-dollar robbery, 13th of 17 stories in BM as a couple
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Death in a Bowl”, 1st of 3 serialized parts, ‘Ben Jardinn, Hollywood eye, & murder in Hollywood Bowl’, ‘(originally titled The Maestro Murder)’, published in hardcover in 1931 by Knopf, 41st of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
SMB Noir 