1950 Avon paperback original. six stories that first appeared in Black Mask Magazine
“The Red Hots” (December 1930)
“Get a Load of This” (February 1931)
“Spare the Rod” (August 1931)
“Pearls are Tears” (September 1931)
“Death’s Not Enough” (October 1931)
“Save Your Tears” (June 1933)
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
better image than previously posted
~ Dale Clark, “The Early Corpse Gets the Worm”, 25th of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 28th of 32 stories in BM
~ Harry Epstein, “The Case of the Mind-Reading Seal”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Julius Long, “Murder By the Carton”, 12th of 17 stories with ’Ben Corbett, D.A.’s chief investigator, 1st -person narrator’, 17th of 23 stories in BM
~ James R. McKenna, “Caliente”, short-short, horse racing, 1st person narrator, author’s only appearance in BM
~ Robert Martin, “Rat Race in Foxtown”, ‘Foxtown is 45 miles SW of Cleveland’, 1st of 8 stories in BM
~ Jim T. Pearce, “Always Leave ‘Em Dying”, author’s sold appearance in BM
~ William Rough, “My Gun Hires Legitimate”, ‘Ben Slabbe, p.i., who has his own agency; 3rd of 5 capers’ in BM
~ H.H. Stinson, “Unholy Matrimony”, 23rd of 27 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by John Drew
better image than previously posted
~ John K. Butler, “Guns for a Lady”, ‘ex-pug, 1st-person narrator; bodyguard for girl’, 2nd of 11 stories in BM
~ Paul Cain, “Pineapple”, ‘Nick Green & Blondie Kessler, police-reporter’, later released as one of the Seven Slayers (1950 Avon), reprinted in The Complete Slayers (2011 Centipede Press), 16th of 17 stories in BM
~ Raymond Chandler, “The Man Who Liked Dogs”, ‘1st of 4 Carmady stories, reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Omnibus (1946)‘ [Simon & Schuster, first hardcover and first book appearance], and Killer in the Rain (Hammish hc, 1964), 7th of 11 stories in BM
~ George Harmon Coxe, “You Gotta Be Tough”, 1st of 4 stories with Paul Baron, 16th of 31 stories in BM
~ Thomas Walsh, “Diamonds Mean Death”, ‘Joe Keenan, private copper’, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), last of 6 stories in BM
~ Edward S. Williams, “Death Has Green Eyes”, ‘Mike Dunneen, private ‘tec’, 1st of 8 appearances in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[cover updated 10/27/25]
November 1943 issue
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
~ William E. Brandon, “It’s So Peaceful in the Country”, ‘Horse Luvnik, ex-con goes to work for academic types, reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Detective (1977)’, last of 7 stories in BM
~ Merle Constiner, “Kill One, Skip One” ‘Luther McGavock, private detective; he works Atherton Browne who heads a Memphis-based agency, 5th 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), 5th of 12 stories in BM
~ C.P. Donnel, Jr., “So Red the Ruby”, ‘Privates Maguire & Caldwell on a 3-day leave in NYC’, 16th of 20 stories in BM
~ Julius Long, “The Devil’s Jack-Pot”, ‘Addison Secore, criminal lawyer, is villain‘, 4th of 23 stories in BM
~ H.H. Stinson, “Two Rings for Murder”, ‘Sam South, loan company proprietor, & Nazi spies’, 18th of 27 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Oil on board, 17.25 x 13.25 in. (sight)
Not signed
Dead in Bed by Day Keene, Pyramid books, G448, 1959.
cover art by Edgar A. Whitney
better image than previously posted
~ Dwight V. Babcock, “Murder on the Gayway”, 6th of 7 Beeker stories, ‘SF World’s Fair, Treasure Island Nude Ranch’, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 20th of 21 stories in BM
~ William Cole, “Waiting for Rusty”, ‘short-short’, only appearance in BM
~ Tiah Devitt, “The Haunted Inn”, last of 2 stories in BM
~ Mark Harper, “Death Rides Double”, ‘motorcycle cop’, pseudonym of Joseph T. Shaw, editor of BM, only fiction to appear under this name in the magazine
~ Fred Hodgkins, “Strangle-Hold”, 2nd of 3 stories in BM
~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “Moron’s Holiday”, last of 29 stories in BM
~ Roger Torrey, “Kill That Witness”, ‘12th (of 14) in Pat McCarthy series, with Marge Chalmers often his “sidekick”; he is ex-NYC cop, ex-agency man (Chicago & St. Louis) who dislikes cops’, 39th of 50 appearances in BM
~ Cornell Woolrich, “Collared”, ‘see p.31 for letter from CW on this story’, 14th of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by Rafael DeSoto
better image than previously posted
~ Dale Clark, “The Sound of the Shot”, 26th of 28 stories with O’Hanna, ‘with movie people & Hollywood beauty contest’, 30th of 32 stories in BM
~ William Campbell Gault, “Hot-House Homicide”, ‘debut of Mortimer Jones (Jonesy), private cop, narrator, drives a Duesenberg’, 1st of 9 stories in BM
~ C.M. (Cyril) Kornbluth, “Beer-Bottle Polka”, ‘Tim Skeat, private cop, 1st person narrator, in NYC’, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 1st of 2 stories in BM, both with Skeat
~ Julius Long, “This Is Murder”, 14th of 17 stories with ‘Ben Corbett, D.A.’s chief investigator, 1st -person narrator’, 19th of 23 stories in BM
~ William Rough, “Don’t Burn Your Corpses Behind You”, ‘Ben Slabbe, p.i., who has his own agency; 4th of 5 capers’ in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Oil on board, 13 x 8-1/2 inches (33.0 x 21.6 cm) (sight) – Not signed
The present work is published on the cover of Dividend on Death by Brett Halliday (Dell, 1952).
first published novel under the name Brett Halliday, first Michael (or Mike) Shayne novel
better image than previously posted
SMB Noir 