
watercolor or gouache?

1962 Lancer paperback original
pen name of E. Howard Hunt
better image than previously posted

watercolor or gouache?

1962 Lancer paperback original
pen name of E. Howard Hunt
better image than previously posted

cover art by Ray Johnson
private eye Peter Chambers

cover art by Ron Lesser

1959 Dell paperback original anthology of short stories by women crime writers, an idea initiated by MacDonald
cover painting by Ron Lesser

1962 Fontana edition from the UK
cover art by John L. Baker
better image than previously posted

[post updated 10/8/25]

1960 Horowitz hardcover, this the US Signet release that same year.
cover painting by Barye Phillips

cover art by Ron Lesser

Original paperback art by Ron Lesser. The model was Lesser’s wife, Claudia.


1946 Chartered digest paperback original
better image than previously posted

1950 Avon paperback original, 1st printing, seven stories originally published in Black Mask Magazine
“Black” (May 1932)
“Red 71” (December 1932)
“Parlor Trick” (July 1932)
“One, Two, Three” (May 1933)
“Murder in Blue” (June 1933) – “Murder Done in Blue” in the original magazine
“Pigeon Blood” (November 1933)
“Pineapple” (March 1936)


1987 Black Lizard reissue
cover art by Kirwin

1987 Blood & Guts hardcover reissue
cover art by Joe Servello


February 2012 Centipede hardcover
cover art by Ron Lesser
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

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]