
2013 Doubleday hardcover
cover design bt Michael J. Windsor
his 10th Easy Rawlins novel, this one set in 1967

2013 Doubleday hardcover
cover design bt Michael J. Windsor
his 10th Easy Rawlins novel, this one set in 1967

1956 Dell paperback original, 8 short stories
cover painting by Robert Stanley
better image than previously posted

cover art by Fred Craft
~ Tom Curry, “Under Cover”, DeVrite, NYPD undercover ‘secret agent’, 1st of 7, subtitled ‘The Receiver’, 20th of 39 stories in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Yellow Shadows, 19th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, in Chinatown with Helen Chadwick and Ngat T’oy; “headnote to story provides valuable data (background)”, 29th of 99 stories in BM
~ Dashiell Hammett, “The 19th Murder”, last of 4 Continental Op stories that will go together to make up Red Harvest (Knopf hc, 1929), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 35th of 51 stories in BM
~ Charles T. Hickey, “Left Helps the Cops”, ‘Lefty McRae, crook’, author’s only story in BM
~ Victor Shaw, “The Tommy-Knocker”, Dan Craig & hard rock mining, 2nd with Craig, 3rd of 5 stories in BM
~ David Thibault, “The Contract”, ‘Louisiana lumber swamps in Mississippi Delta, Irish dialect’, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Everett H. Tipton, “Leather Mask and Cowhide Vest”, ‘Western’, 2nd of 7 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Soft Goods”, ‘Little Bennie, a hood, & Charlie Harmer, detective, in Center City’, 18th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[cover updated 1/22/26]

1933 Doubleday Doran advance reading copy

1948 Avon reprint, 1st paperback edition
cover art by Ann Cantor
Fast One was Cain’s sole novel
Chandler termed it the “high point in the ultra hard-boiled manner”

cover art by Victor Olsen

1978 Southern Illinois University Press
an entry in their “Lost American Fiction” series

1980 Popular Library 1st print reissue
cover art by Jin Campbell

1987 Black Lizard reissue
cover art by Kirwin

February 2012 Centipede hardcover
cover art by Ron Lesser
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[updated 6/26/25]

January 1977 Vintage paperback original, 1st printing
edited and with an introduction by Herbert Ruhm
Carroll John Daly, “The False Burton Combs” (Dec, 1922)
Peter Collinson, “The Road Home” (Dashiell Hammettt, Dec, 1922)
Dashiell Hammett, “The Gutting of Couffignal” (Dec, 1925)
Norbert Davis, “Kansas City Flash” (Mar, 1933)
Frederick Nebel, “Take It and Like It” (June, 1934)
Raymond Chandler, “Goldfish” (June, 1936)
Lester Dent, “Angelfish” (Dec, 1936)
Erle Stanley Gardner, “Leg Man” (Feb, 1938)
George Harmon Coxe, “Once Around the Clock” (May, 1941)
Merle Constiner, “The Turkey Buzzard Blues” (July, 1943)
William Brandon, “It’s So Peaceful in the Country” (Nov, 1943)
Curt Hamlin, “Killer Come Home” (his only Black Mask story, July, 1948)
Paul W. Fairman, “Big-Time Operator” (his only Black Mask story, July, 1948)
Bruno Fischer, “Five O’Clock Menace” (May, 1949)
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

1955 Crown hardcover
November 1956 Signet reissue
cover art by Robert Maguire
4th with Kansas City private eye Johnny April
3rd print March 1964

[both property of the host]

cover art by Peter Stevens
better image than previously posted
~ Fredric Brown, “Cry Silence” – his only appearance in BM, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010)
~ Curtis Cluff, “Overdose of Lead”, NYC PI Chuck Conrad, last of 4 stories in BM
~ Mel Colton, “Dead Men Can’t Welsh”, ‘Jimmy Rock, p.i.’, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ William Campbell Gault, “The Bloody Bokhara”, ‘the carpet business!’, 8th of 9 stories in BM
~ Don M. Mankiewicz, “Odd on Death”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Tom Marvin, “Harm’s Way”, last of 3 stories in BM
~ Coleman Meyer, “Gun in His Back”, ‘cop story’, 2nd of 2 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
