Smashing Detective Stories, September 1954

# Smashing Detective Stories, September 1954

This pulp detective magazine contains a feature novel and multiple short stories. Carroll John Daly's "Murder by the Book" serves as the lead fiction, in which protagonist Baldwin Scott must compel an unknown killer to reveal themselves through Scott's own machinations. A novelet titled "Ins Care Passing" by Mark Carrel follows, featuring a murder mystery centered on identifying whether the killer was left-handed.

The issue includes several short crime stories and feature articles: Harold Gluck's "Spotlight on Crime" continues "Further Recollections of a Police Chief," recounting an 1884 incident near Tramps Rock in New York's Thirty-fifth Precinct where patrolman E. Johnstone discovers a decomposed body. Additional stories by Francis C. Battle, Basil Wells, Thomas Thursday, Walter Kanitz, and others involve detectives and criminals navigating legal complications, criminal schemes, and investigations. Tales include "A Case of Villainy," "Sgt. Logan's Three Strange Cases," and "Perfect Hideout," which recounts a fugitive's attempt to hide in a dead man's identity.