cover art by John Fleming Gould
better image than previously posted
Carroll John Daly, “The White-Headed Corpse” (Race Williams)
Michael Sutton, “The Devil’s Portrait”
Jan Dana, “Too Week to Kill” (Acme Indemnity Op)
Dale Clark, “The Short and Merry One”
Roger Torrey, “Fire Test”
Maurice Beam, “Mind Over Matter”
Robert K. Adams, “Curtain Call”
D.L. Champion, “Dumb Dick”
cover art by Tom Lovell
better image than previously posted
Carroll John Daly, “Monogram in Lead” (Race Williams)
T.T. Flynn, “A Date at the Morgue”
John K. Butler, “The Walking Dead” (Rex Lonergan)
Robert Sidney Bowen, “The Man Who Was Two” (Kip Lacey)
John Lawrence, “Broadway Malady” (Marquis of Broadway)
a letter from JKB appeared on pgs. 123-124
Daly, Carroll John. BETTER CORPSES: A RACE WILLIAMS STORY. London: Robert Hale Limited, [1940]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-286 [287-288: blank], publisher’s black cloth stamped in red and silver. First edition. “When better corpses are made, Race Williams will make them” (p. 186). The last Race Williams book, a fix-up novel incorporating the three-part Morse story arc that first appeared in DIME DETECTIVE in 1935 and 1936 featuring Daly’s violent tough-guy detective, Race Williams, who “never bumped off a guy what didn’t need it” and the Flame (The Girl with the Criminal Mind), “a woman of good — a woman of evil. Take your choice.” Carroll John Daly (1889-1958), one of the fathers of the modern hard-boiled private eye and an important BLACK MASK writer, “is not known for literary niceties — his style can best be described as crude but effective … Characterization is minimal and action is everything” (Crider and Pronzini). Race Williams was Daly’s most successful creation, appearing in about 70 stories and eight novels. Lee Server (Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers, 2014) has called Race Williams “the single most popular private eye in the history of the pulps.” Cloth worn and scuffed, slight spine lean, half title leaf and final blank tanned, a sound, good copy in a pictorial 8/3 dust jacket with touch of wear at edges, mainly lower spine end, and mild tanning to spine panel and along rear flap fold. Stunning jacket. From the library of a well-known mystery writer with his library stamp on the front paste-down. Rare. There is no equivalent U.S. edition.
better image than previously posted
Peter Paige, “Cash Wale’s Carnival Kill” (Cash Wale)
Theodore Sturgeon, “Die, Maestro, Die!”
Carroll John Daly, “Half a Corpse” (Race Williams)
Larry J. Marcus, “Dead Man Blues”
R.M.F. Joses, “Bad to the Last Drop”
Robert Carlton, “Sealed with a Kiss” (Mike Brent)
John D. MacDonald, “You’ll Never Escape”
later UK edition, includes five pieces from US May 1949 edition
Peter Paige, “Cash Wale’s Carnival Kill”
Theodore Sturgeon, “Die Maestro, Die!”
Larry J. Marcus, “Dead Man Blues”
R.M.F. Joses, “Bad to the Last Drop”
Ted Palmer, “The June Thrill Docket”
stories by Daly, Carlton and MacDonald omitted
cover art by Norman Saunders
better image than previously posted
Carroll John Daly, “Race Williams Cooks a Goose”
John D. MacDonald, “Target for Tonight”
William P. McGivern, “Hunt Her in Hell”
Raymond Drennan, Jr., “He Woke Up Dying”
Preston Grady, “Killing’s Too Easy”
Charles Larson, “My Crime – Your Punishment”
better image than previously posted
Carroll John Daly, “Gangman ’s Gallows” (Race Williams)
Raymond Chandler, “Trouble is My Business ” (John Dalmas)
Edward Ronns, “Three Doors to Doom”
O.B. Myers, “Fire and Ice”
Hugh B. Cave, “Deal from the Bottom”
D.L. Champion, “Laughter in Hell”
cover art by J. W. Schlaikjer
better image than previously posted
~ Thomson Burtis, “The Death of a Deal”, ‘Slats Kirke, minor boxing manager, 1st person’, 3rd of 6 appearances in BM
~ Paul Cain, “Black”, 1st of 2 with Black, 1st person, Hollywood, later released as one of the Seven Slayers (1950 Avon), reprinted in The Complete Slayers (2011 Centipede Press), Black Mask: The Complete Stories (2013 Mysterious Press), Lead Party: The Complete Fiction Works of Paul Cain (Steeger, 2024), 3rd of 17 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “The Amateur Murderer”, 44th of 53 with Race Williams, part 2 of 4, published as a novel in 1933, reprinted in If Death is Respectable: The Collected Hard-boiled Stories of Race Williams, v.4 (Altus, 2018), 56th of 71 appearances in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Under the Guns”, 43 of 73 stories with Ed Jenkins, 60th of 99 stories in BM
~ Hapsburg Liebe, “The Wolf of Rowdy House”, ‘Western’, last of 4 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Backwash”, 18th of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, reprinted in Shakedown: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kennedy, v.2 (Altus, 2013), 39 of 67 stories in BM
~ Bertrand W(illiam) Sinclair, “The Spider in His Web”, ‘Western detective story’, last of 3 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Walking Dynamite”, 2nd of 3 stories with PI Don Free, 2nd story in this issue by RFW, 58th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[cover updated 11/8/25]
cover art by Fred Craft
better image than previously posted
~ Tom Curry, “Supercrook”, 14th of 23 with Macnamara (Mac), NYPD 1st grade dick, 28th of 39 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “The Last Shot”, 27th of 53,‘Race Williams vs. The Hidden Hand; last of 5 loosely organized 5-pt. serial’, reprinted in The Snarl of the Beast: The Collected Hard-boiled Stories of Race Williams, v.2 (Altus, 2016), 39th of 71 appearances in BM
~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Black Sheep’s Return”, ‘Flash Powell; Western’, 12th of 39 stories in BM
~ John W. McCardell, “Warren of Granite Canyon”, ‘Western’, 2nd of 2 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Dog Eat Dog”, 2nd of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, ‘2nd of the ‘Crimes of Richmond City’ sub-series, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (Vintage, 2007), reprinted in Raw Law: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kennedy, v.1 (Altus, 2013), 14 of 67 stories in BM
~ Everett H. Tipton, “A Song in the Night”, ‘Border tale; Juárez’, 1st of 7 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Ghost Guns”, ‘Mac, Ben Greed; 5th of 6 in Border Brand series’, reprinted in Border Brand (Steeger, 2024), 25th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
cover art by H. C. Murphy
better image than previously posted
~ Tom Curry, “The Star”, 17th of 23 with Macnamara (Mac), NYPD 1st grade dick, 31st of 39 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “A Pretty Bit of Shooting”, 29th of 53 with Race Williams, ‘The Flame’ aka Florence Drummond, ‘The Girl with the Criminal Mind’, 2nd of a loosely organized 4-pt. serial; pub. as The Tag Murders (1930)’, reprinted in The Snarl of the Beast: The Collected Hard-boiled Stories of Race Williams, v.2 (Altus, 2016), 41st of 71 appearances in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “No Questions Asked”, 27th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, with Helen Chadwick, 40th of 99 stories in BM
~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Crooks Assorted”, 9th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, 13th of 39 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Law without Law”, 4th of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, 4th of the ‘Crimes of Richmond City’ sub-series, reprinted in Raw Law: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kennedy, v.1 (Altus, 2013), 16 of 67 stories in BM
~ Edward Parrish Ware, “The Six-Gun Showdown”, ‘Western novelette’, last of 9 stories in BM
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “The Pay-Off”, Gary Greer, 3rd (of 9) in the Laughing Dead series, ‘presented as separate stories rather than conventional serial; pub. As Five (1931) under the pseudonym of Temple Field’, 29th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]. Reprinted in Laughing Death (Steeger Books, 2021).
June 1925 issue
cover art by A.T. Stewart
~ Charles G. Booth, “One Shot”, ‘An Impossible Crime’, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 4th of 7 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “Say It with Lead”, 8th of 53 with Race Williams, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015), 16th of 71 appearances in BM
~ J.S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher, “The Skene-Dhu of Inverikie”, ‘A Family Mystery’, last of 6 appearances in BM
~ S.S. Gannett, “Invisible Fingers”, author’s sole story in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “No So Darned Bad”, 3rd of 73 Ed Jenkins, ‘the Phantom Crook again’, 7th of 99 stories in BM
~ Richard Frank Hagar, “In Sea Bats’ Craws”, ‘Mystery of the Sea’, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Dashiell Hammett, “Finger-Prints”, letter to ed, relating to article by Beffel in previous issue [not counted as a ‘story’]
~ Arthur Kearns, “That Grahame Gem Robbery”, ‘touted as ‘A Compressed Novelette’‘, 2nd of 2 stories in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “Swift Work”, 41st of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 42nd of 49 total articles in BM
~ L. King Tichenor, “The Law Steps In”, ‘a confidence yarn’, 2nd of 5 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
SMB Noir 