
1963 Belmont paperback original
10th with NYC PI Ed Noon
cover art by Rudy Nappi

cover art by William Reusswig
better image than previously posted
Carroll John Daly, “Blood on the Curtain” (Marty Day & Reckoner)
Allan Vaughan Elston, “Winking Death” (Arthur Baird & Patrick Shone)
T.T. Flynn, “Red Dollars” (Jerry Prince)
Oscar Schisgall, “Wrapped for Murder” (Dan Taggert, PI)

cover art by Fred Craft
~ J. Edgar Ambler, “The Buzzard”, ‘The Buzzard & the Cracker, criminals’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Tom Curry, “The Stick-Up Club”, 8th of 23 with Macnamara (Mac), NYPD 1st grade dick, 13th of 39 stories in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “In Full Account”, 16th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, last of 3 with ‘The Girl with the Mole’, reprinted in Dead Men’s Letters (1990, Carroll & Graf anthology of Jenkins stories), 25th of 99 stories in BM
~ Dashiell Hammett, “$106,000 Blood Money” Continental Op [21st of 25], sequel to “The Big Knock-Over”, in the 2/1927 issue, reprinted with its prequel as Blood Money (Tower, 1943), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 30th of 51 stories in BM
~ (Charles John) Cutcliffe Hyne, “The Liner and the Iceberg”, 7th of 8 yarns with Captain Kettle
~ Don Livingston, “No Grandstand Play”, Western, 2nd of 2 stories in BM
~ Riblew Reelhew, “Eyes of the Night”, ‘Dandy Dan, nimble & nimble-witted crook’, 2nd of 2 stories under this pseudonym, Wilber Wheeler reversed
~ Victor Shaw, “For a Girl Like That”, ‘Western detective’, 1st of 5 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “South of Savannah”, 4th of 7 ‘Chuck Reddington story; airplanes & machineguns’, 12th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

cover art by Walter Baumhofer
better image than previously posted
Carroll John Daly, “Dead Hands Reaching” (Race Williams)
John K. Butler, “The Stairway to Hell” (Rex Lonergan)
Oscar Schisgall, “Island of Fear”
Norbert Davis, “The Devil’s Scalpel” (Bill Ray)
Wyatt Blassingame, “3+1 = Murder”

cover art by Albert Drake
better image than previously posted
~ Dale Clark, “The Corpse with the Bloody Nose”, last of 28 O’Hanna stories, last of 32 appearances in BM
~ Merle Constiner, “Dead on Arrival”, ‘Luther McGavock, private detective; he works Atherton Browne who heads a Memphis-based agency, 10th 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), 11th of 12 stories in BM
~ Robert C. Dennis, “Out of This World”, 2nd of 6 with ‘William (Willie) Carmody, Confidential Investigations & Margaret O’Leary, writer, Hollywood, WC is first-person narrator’, 2nd of 10 stories in BM
~ William Campbell Gault, “A Murder for Mac”, reprinted in Hot-House Homicide: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Mortimer Jones (Steeger, 2925), 2nd of 5 with PI Mortimer Jones, 3rd of 9 stories in BM
~ Coleman Meyer, “You’ll Never Grow Old”, ‘Hill Cartright, auto racer, tells it’, author’s 1st of 2 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

better image than previously posted
cover art by J. W. Schlaikjer
~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “Death in the Pasig”, Jo Gar, 2nd of 24 in BM, reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Omnibus (1946), reprinted in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Bar (Altus Press, 2013)
~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Hat Trick”, Ned Beaumont, 1st of 4 stories that will go together to make up The Glass Key (published 1931), 41st of 45 stories in BM
~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Boom Town”, 12th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, 16th of 39 stories in BM
~ Horace McCoy, “Frost Rides Again”, 5th of 14 Frost stories with ‘Capt. Jerry Frost, Texas (Air) Ranger’, 6th of 17 stories in BM, reprinted in The Black Mask Boys (1985, Morrow) as “Frost Flies Alone”
~ Earl and Marion Scott, “Bitter Business”, 3rd of 6 stories with ‘Phil Craleigh, once brilliant lawyer, now a drunk, given to bouts of reform’, 12th of 17 stories in BM as a couple
~ Peter G. Thomas, “The Bell in the Fog”, ‘River pirates in NYC’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Oval Face”, ‘Mal Ourney; part 4 (of 5), ‘The Crime Breeders’, presented as separate stories rather than conventional serial’, published in hardcover in 1930 by Knopf as Green Ice, 38th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

1956 Gold Medal paperback original
all cover art by Barye Phillips
better image than previously posted
10th with private eye Shell Scott







Frank Miller’s “Famous Detective Pin-Up” portfolio was published as PinUps at the back of Renegade Press’s “Ms. Tree Thrilling Detective Adventures”, #s 1-4, back in 1983.

1958 Hamish Hamilton, true 1st edition

1958 Houghton Mifflin hardcover


1959 Brazilian edition in Portuguese

1960 Cardinal reissue – cover art by William Rose
better image than previously posted




1961 Australian edition from Horwitz – cover art by Theo Batten

1965 British edition – cover design by Alan Spain

1968 Pyramid reissue – cover art by Joseph Lombardero



1975 Penguin edition – cover design by James Tormey

1977 Ballantine reissue, 1st print (owner’s copy) – cover art by Richard Waldrep

later 1977 Ballantine reissue – cover art by Richard Waldrep


1979 Pan/Macmillan reissue – cover photo by Peter Williams


late 8os UK Penguin reissue






1999 Scandinavian edition (unsure of country)


2004 French graphic novel edition

[updated 3/8/26]

1953 Hammish Hamilton UK hardcover, the true first edition of this novel

1954 Houghton Mifflin hardcover, first US edition – (owner’s copy)
cover illustration by Lorraine
final Marlowe novel, an American classic and winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel

1954 Hammish Hamilton book club edition

August 1955 Pocket reissue, 2nd printing – (owner’s copy)
cover art by Tom Dunn


1964 Pocket reissue – cover art by Harry Bennett


1971 Ballantine reissue – cover art by Richard Waldrep

1971 Penguin UK reissue – cover design by James Tormey

1972 Ballantine reissue – cover art by Tom Adams (owner’s copy)

1973 Ballantine movie tie-in reissue (owner’s copy)

1979 Pan/Macmillan reissue – cover photo by Richard Williams



1988 UK Vintage/Black Lizard reissue

1988 Vintage/Black Lizard reissue

1988 Vintage/Black Lizard reissue


