Black Mask Detective (UK)

About this issue

This October 1952 British edition of Black Mask Detective contains six crime fiction stories. The featured novelette, Frank Ward's "The Deadest Bride in Town," depicts protagonist Peter O'Mara discovering his unfaithful wife Nancy dead in a bathtub at their rented beach cottage, drowned with an electrical cord from a radio. O'Mara arrives with a gun in hand, emotionally numb upon finding her corpse in cold water. After leaving the scene, he encounters a drunk couple—including a man named Eric—in his car. When O'Mara confronts them, Eric's companion strikes O'Mara with a bottle, knocking him unconscious in the sand. Additional stories include Dennis Wiegand's "Nobody Loves a Cop" and Joel Townsley Rogers' "When the Devil-God Smiled," among others focused on murder, infidelity, and criminal investigation.