Black Mask (UK), February 1950

About this issue

This February 1950 British edition of Black Mask contains six detective and crime stories. "Sing a Song of Murder" by Marvin J. Jones centers on Officer Jimmy Bell, a beat cop called to Homicide over a murder case. When Lieutenant Brady questions Bell about two bodies—silver-haired Sawyer slumped over his desk and young Richard Worth dead on the floor with a pistol nearby—it becomes clear the investigation targets Bell's alibi. Bell had been dating Marion Lawson, a blonde nightclub singer and Sawyer's niece. He provides an alibi placing her at Coffee Jack's at exactly 2:30 a.m., claiming to have checked his watch. Brady skillfully pressures Bell, suggesting time memories are unreliable and implying the alibi may be fabricated to protect the woman Bell cares for. Other stories in the issue include "Let's All Swing Together" by Robert Martin, "Flaming Angel" by Frederick C. Davis, "Killing All Men!" by John D. MacDonald, "Frame for a Dame" by Dean Evans, and "The High Cost of Dying" by Edward Van der Rhoer—all featuring crime and murder themes typical of pulp detective fiction.