'Intimate Revelations of Private Investigators...'

There's no doubt from that cover as to the angle on  crime fiction that  Private Detective Stories was focusing on.  Over its 13 year publication history, (it lasted until 1950) the pulp's covers invariably featured an attractive woman, usually showing some cleavage, either imperiled and looking startled, or as some kind of gun-toting femme fatale.  As in this November 1940 example, they are often tied up, or in the process of being bound.  They are also frequently being roughed up by some thug. (The state of the bound young lady's clothing in this example implies she has already suffered such treatment and hints that, like the male captive, might have suffered torture, or worse). In case the casual newstand browser was still in any doubt as to the likely content, there's that strap-line: 'Intimate Revelations of Private Investigators'.  I'm mildly surprised that they didn't go the whole hog and title the magazine Private Dick Stories, but perhaps that would have been going too far.

None of this should be surprising, as the magazine came from the same publisher as the already establish Spicy Detective pulp,  It was part of a whole family of such pulps whose titles and garish covers promised all sorts of sleazy variations on the standard formulae.  Of course, by modern standards it all seems pretty tame, although the interior illustrations were suitably two fisted and featured a disturbing amount of male violence toward women.  The word 'Stories' was later dropped from the title, as had been the strap line during the later forties, but the covers stuck to the tried and tested formula of women in peril.  The last few issues featured a comic strip section - a common feature in many pulps during this period, as they struggled to attract a new readership.  Some of the later issues also had a UK reprint.