cover art by John Fleming Gould
Carroll John Daly, “The Men in Black” (Race Williams)
T.T. Flynn, “Death Rides the Favorite” (Mr. Maddox)
H.F. Howard, “Let Nature Takes Its Corpse”
Leslie T. White, “The Price of Square Joe Bund”
Robert Sidney Bowen, “Murder Out of Thin Air” (Kip Lacey)
better image than previously posted
December 15, 1934 issue
cover art by Walter Baumhofer
Frederick Nebel, “Leave it to Cardigan”
Erle Stanley Gardner, “Suicide House” (Small, Weston & Burke)
T.T. Flynn, “The Red Wizard” (Izzy O’Shea)
Carroll John Daly, “Excuse to Kill” (Clay Holt)
Donald Barr Chidsey, “Model T”
W.W. Van Dale, “Old Alibi” (Dave Anderson)
better image than previously posted
cover art by John Fleming Gould
Carroll John Daly, “A Corpse for a Corpse” (Race Williams)
Will McMorrow, “The House with the Red Door)
D.L. Champion, “Footprints on a Brain” (Insp. Allhoff)
T.T. Flynn, “Mr. Maddox and the Gray Ghost”
Jan Dana, “Murder for Not Much”
better image than previously posted
[updated 2/1/26]
December 1959 Pocket paperback, 2nd print
2nd Lew Archer, an August 1950 Knopf hardcover
cover painting by James Meese
1966 Pocket reissue – cover art by Harry Bennett
British 1975 Fontana movie tie-in
Australian 2012 Penguin reissue
Australian 2023 Penguin reissue
[updated 8/20/26]
January 1938 issue
cover art by Walter Baumhofer
Carroll John Daly, “Book of the Dead” (Race Williams)
Raymond Chandler, “Red Wind” (John Dalmas)
Jan Dana, “To the Murder Born”
B.B. Fowler, “Lead Legacy”
George A. Shaftel, “Star-Crossed”
Dale Clark, “Stone-Blind Killer”
better image than previously posted
“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. One nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husband’s necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.”
– Chandler, “Red Wind”
[cover updated 8/11/26]
Henry Kane, “Watch the Jools” (Peter Chambers)
[updated with original art 8/5/25]
December 1925 issue
~ Carroll John Daly, “Under Cover”, 1st of 2 parts, Race Williams, 11th of 53, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015), 19th of 71 appearances in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Triple Cross”, 5th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, 11th of 99 stories in BM
~ Joseph Gollomb, “Vienna’s Scholarly Detectives”, 5th of 6 articles
~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Gutting of Couffignal”, the Op [18th of 25], reprinted in The Return of the Continental Op (Dell mapback, 1947), reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Detective (1977), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 25th of 51 stories in BM
~ Donald MacGregor, “The House of Flashing Lights”, ‘concerning a vaudeville actor’, 7th of 10 stories
~ Benjamin Michalek, “The Invisible Order of the Living Dead”, “advertised as ‘strange and weird story’”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “Trapped”, 45th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 47th of 49 total articles in BM
~ J. Paul Suter, “The German Field Glass”, 8th of 15 stories with The Reverend McGregor Daunt, ‘clergyman by profession and detective by choice’, 11th of 19 appearances in BM
1st Pocket edition, December 1965
first hardcovers were 1964 from Hamish Hamilton the UK and Houghton Mifflin in the US
From Black Mask Magazine: “Killer in the Rain”, “The Men Who Liked Dogs”, “The Curtain” and “Try the Girl”
From Dime Detection Magazine: “Mandarin’s Jade”, “Bay City Blues” and “The Lady in the Lake”
From Detective Story Magazine: “No Crime in the Mountains”
