“Do Not Murder Before Christmas,” by Jack Iams

Do Not Murder Before Christmas, by Jack Iams (Dell, 1951). Although this novel was published in hardcover in 1949, by William Morrow, it is the above paperback edition that wins the most notice, especially at this time of year. The artwork here is by Robert Stanley, about whom we’ve written extensively before, and the story is the fifth to star newspaper editor Stanley Rockwell, aka Rocky. Author Iams—whose real name was Samuel H. Iams Jr. (1910-1990)—was himself a journalist with more than half a century’s experience, having labored as “a foreign correspondent, a writer for Newsweek, and an author of comic and mystery novels,” according to his obituary.