Monthly Archives: March 2014

Tour: And As the Year Ended, the MWA Slipped on Their Gumshoes

For the penultimate walk of 2013 I took out no less than twenty members of the Mystery Writers of America on a two hour version of the tour, highlighting The Maltese Falcon — you’ve got to figure that if someone … Continue reading

Posted in Frisco, Lit, News, SFSC, Tour | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |

Frisco Beat: William Worley

My article on collecting San Francisco mysteries wraps up with a sequence from William Worley’s 1948 novel My Dead Wife, which captures in an evocative thumbnail moment the appeal of that hobby: I ran uphill a dozen paces to the parapet … Continue reading

Posted in Frisco, Lit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , |

Rediscovered: “Just Ask Luis Rodriquez”

So, to follow-up on the idea of doing In Memoriam: Willeford, how about we premiere a new Guest Blogger with a new series? The blogger: Michael S. Chong, Willeford fan (who ain’t on the mean streets?). The series: articles with some Willefordian presence he’s … Continue reading

Posted in Willeford | Tagged , , |

Tour: On Palm Sunday

Jim Dinan sent in the shot above from the walk on September 8, 2013 — 891 Post is in the background, right, with the What a Grind coffee house sign and a bit of the front awning visible. Thanks, Jim. To … Continue reading

Posted in News, Tour, Willeford | Tagged , , , , |

Noir: A Fast Dose of Bleak for Monday

Got a note from Nathan Ward to tell me that he took a little break from working on his new bio of Hammett to knock out a 750 worder for Akashic’s “Mondays Are Murder” web featurette. His gritty excursion into … Continue reading

Posted in Dash, News | Tagged , |

Rediscovered: More on Alice Speed Stoll

A year ago, this very month, our Guest Blogger veteran Terry Zobeck explored the references to real life kidnappings in various incarnations of the Hammett story “Death and Company” — which included the 1934 Alice Speed Stoll caper. Just got … Continue reading

Posted in Dash, Lit, News | Tagged , , , , |

Tour: And the Oscar Goes To

Per my norm of recent years, I hadn’t seen any of the films up for major awards — still haven’t caught up with Argo from last year — but as usual watched the Oscar ceremonies last night anyway. I guess I consider … Continue reading

Posted in Dash, Film, News, Tour | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |