1945 Avon digest reissue, 2nd edition
Gathers “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot,” “Goldfish,” “Guns at Cyrano’s” “Nevada Gas” and “Spanish Blood,” five mystery stories first published in Black Mask Magazine
better image than previously posted
June 1972 Ballantine reissue, 1st print
cover art by Tom Adams
1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd print
includes:
“The Simple Art of Murder” (Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1944)
“Spanish Blood” (Black Mask Magazine, Nov. 1935)
“I’ll Be Waiting” (Saturday Evening Post, Dec. 1939)
“The King in Yellow” (Dime Detective Magazine, Mar. 1938)
“Pearls are a Nuisance” (Dime Detective Magazine, April 1939)
cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie
[covers from owner’s own copies]
cover art by John Drew
better image than previously posted
~ William Donald Bray, “A Keg of Muscatel”, ‘murder at a winery’, last of 12 stories in BM
~ John K. Butler, “’G” – Heat”, ‘‘Brick’ Hammond, G-man’, 1st of 11 stories in BM
~ Raymond Chandler, “Spanish Blood”, LAPD Delaguerra, first book reprint in the anthology Five Murderers (Avon digest, 1944), first hardcover appearance, The Simple Art of Murder (Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 5th of 11 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Winter Kill”, 32nd of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, 61 of 67 stories in BM, reprinted in The Hardboiled Dicks (1965), reprinted in Winter Kill: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kenney, v.4 (Altus, 2013)
~ Theodore A. Tinsley, “Five Spot”, ‘14th (of 25) Jerry Tracy capers, columnist on the (NYC) Planet, ‘mixer with poor and rich, the crooked and the straight, trailer of trouble and happiness’, 15th of 26 stories in BM
©Seattle Mystery Bookshop
[cover updated 11/8/25]
1977 Ballantine mass market, 3rd print
“The Simple Art of Murder” (Atlantic Monthly, Dec 1944)
“Spanish Blood” (Black Mask Magazine, Nov 1935)
“I’ll Be Waiting” (Saturday Evening Post, Dec 1939)
“The King in Yellow” (Dime Detective Magazine, Mar 1938)
“Pearls are a Nuisance” (Dime Detective Magazine, April 1939)
cover art by Whistlin’ Dixie
SMB Noir 