Black Mask: 23 books

Hard-boiled detective Race Williams investigates the strangest murder of his career. Another classic from the pages of Black Mask Magazine. Story #5 in the Race Williams series. Carroll John Daly (1889–1958) was the creator of the first hard-boiled private eye story, predating Dashiell Hammett's...

Race Williams—the classic hard-boiled detective from the pages of Black Mask Magazine—takes on the biggest blackmailing scheme of his career. Plus a bonus Daly hard-boiled classic: "Paying an Old Debt." Story #2 in the Race Williams series. Carroll John Daly (1889–1958) was...

"Mr. Cardigan... if we come to terms, I'll go and fetch your daughter back. I don't want to be considered a killer, but if your son-in-law is as quick as you say, why—I'll bring your daughter home a widow!" Race Williams travels to Mexico in another hard-boiled classic from the pages of...

Class was stamped on every contour of her body, but the faint wisp of fear clung to her person. Gladys Pervins was a woman who had slipped on the path and was paying the price. Her husband, a reclusive yet extremely jealous scientist who spends his nights alone in the laboratory, gave her nothing...

Race Williams is a man who likes the study people—read ‘em like a book. So, when Mr. Riverity Coe shows up seeking a bodyguard for his beautiful fiancé, Gladys Travers, Race is only too happy to make a quick buck. After all, easy money is always in his line. However, when Mrs. Travers arrives...

The first hard-boiled detective Race Williams, runs up against the Klan in his premiere adventure, which leads him to fast and tragic action. Plus two other early Daly hard-boiled classics: "The False Burton Combs" and "Dolly." Story #1 in the Race Williams series. Carroll...

When Race Williams receives a note to meet in the dead hours of the night on an abandoned roadside, he is leery of the setup. And then a mysterious call warns him that someone will try to kill him tonight. In the Confidential Agent’s mind, if some bird really wanted the opportunity to bump off Race...

Who is the criminal known only as “The Beast?” Too baffling for the police to solve, it becomes a manhunt in which detective Race Williams must track down “the most feared, the cunningest and cruelest creature that stalks the city streets at night.” But it will soon become Race's most dangerous...

An envelope full of money and a request to join his client at a tough nightclub downtown brings Race Williams face to face with many of the swarthy faces of crime. The shaded, dirty lights of the “Egyptian Lure” allows the Confidential Agent to slink his way through the club, assessing every hardened...

For the first time, Race Williams encounters the mysterious masked Red Peril in the biggest case of his hard-boiled career thus far. Story #3 in the Race Williams series. Carroll John Daly (1889–1958) was the creator of the first hard-boiled private eye story, predating Dashiell Hammett's...

Mexican Joe was a sore eye and a bad tooth to the New York City Police Department. So, when he spread-eagled out of a twenty-second story window of a skyscraper and ended as mush amid the Brooklyn traffic, no one batted an eye. Except for Race Williams. A sure buck and a good lead compelled him to...

Race Williams—Confidential Agent—is not a charitable institution, but the potential of cold, hard cash, not curiosity, will drive Williams to the brink. When a mysterious letter and hotel key from “A Real American” takes him to the twenty-seventh story of a New York skyscraper, Williams arrives...

Five one-hundred-dollar bills call Race Williams to an appointment. When he starts he hasn't the least idea what it's all about, and the further he gets into it, the more confused it becomes except that every hand seems against him. It is not long before Race gets mad, which is all that is needed...

Race Williams thought he had seen it all until he came face to face with the mystery of The Tag Murderer: the killer who left metal emblems pinned to each of his victims' corpses. Solving the case is only made more complicated when The Flame, Race's femme fatale, becomes entangled in the mystery:...