Black Mask (UK), June 1949

About this issue

This June 1949 issue of Black Mask (Vol. VI, No. 12, British Edition) contains five detective and crime stories. The lead story, "No Pockets in a Shroud" by Richard Deming, follows Manville Moon, a one-legged private investigator from World War I. When rival gambling bosses Louis Bagnell and Byron Wade each separately approach Moon for employment in their escalating gang war over control of the city's gambling operations, Moon declares neutrality. Wade's volatile young hitman Danny nearly draws on Moon, then Wade hires him to investigate Wade's potential murder as if natural causes—offering a thousand-dollar retainer. Other stories include "Trouble on Circuit 13" (Robert J. McCaig), about a high-voltage lineman facing execution; "Legitimately Dead" (G. T. Fleming-Roberts), featuring a booking agent orchestrating forgery and bigamy schemes; "Ear-Witness" (Maurice Beam), concerning a killer tracked by an incriminating letter; and "Somebody for the Wolves" (Robinson MacLean), set in Hollywood.