Black Mask Detective (UK)

Museum Catalog Note 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.