Originally published in 1945 as The Dead Lie Still, William L. Stuart’s thriller Dead Ahead is about an ex-naval intelligence officer who after the war runs afoul of a gang of local thugs. The Ace edition here appeared in 1953 and the art is by Norman Saunders. It’s a double novel, and the other side is Day Keene’s Mrs. Homicide, also with Saunders art. Twice the vice, one easy price. 

Consider these a small subset of our collection of falling covers—call them desperate leaps. The interesting part is if the gunmen weren’t there, both women would look like they were having fun. The art is by Harry Barton, 1957, and Rudolph Belarski, 1948.

Stewart Sterling, aka Prentice Winchell and several other pseudonyms, began as a writer for radio but eventually branched out into pulp novels and carved out a literary career that lasted almost twenty years. He created two running characters during that time. One of them was Gil Vine, a house detective in a hotel. The other—Ben Pedley—was a fire marshall who relied upon training and experience to foil arsonists (who typically were merely the hired thugs of more highly-placed criminal elements). Fire Marshall Pedley had the drive and toughness you’d expect from a fictional firefighter, as well as the flaws you enjoy in an anti-hero. There were nine Fire Marshall Pedley novels, including Five Alarm Funeral, which you see above, Where There’s Smoke, Fire on Fear Street, Alarm in the Night, Too Hot To Handle, Hinges of Hell, and others. For more detailed information on Sterling and his body of work, visit his page on the website Mystery*File.com.