Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour. 
The Dashiell Hammett Tour
1977-2022
Arkham House Ephemera
The Classic Years 1937–1973
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Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
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Monthly Archives: December 2017
Hammett: Koichi Suwabe’s Lectures on The Maltese Falcon
Here’s something for the arch-Hammett fan to track down — a close to 400 pager all about The Maltese Falcon, going at it chapter by chapter. Published in 2012. It’s in Japanese, but if you’re dedicated at working translation programs. … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Further FLIVVERing from Carroll John Daly
Man, I don’t even have to LOOK for evidence, it just rolls in like the sea. You may recall that in The Great Flivver War of 2015 I found an example of Black Mask great Carroll John Daly using the … Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged Carroll John Daly, El Flivver, El Henry Ford, flivvers, People's Magazine, Red Connors
Rediscovered: Fred Dannay and His More Literary Cousin
A couple of years back Nathan Ward popped me a link to an article — a very good, long article — about the popular Mean Streets topic Frederic Dannay, one half of the “Ellery Queen” writing team, and his continuing … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: Back to the TL Museum for The Penalty
At top and bottom, a couple of shots from my July 13 appearance in the Tenderloin Museum, talking up The Thin Man and with some snippets of the 1931 Falcon — high point being when we spotted the heart of the … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco, News
Tagged CitySleuth, Lon Chaney Sr., Tenderloin, Tenderloin Museum, The Big Knockover, The Penalty
Frisco Beat: Connie di Marco Brings Another Zodiac to Town
For her second Zodiac series psychic mystery, Connie di Marco did one of those blog tours to promo the title — and since the action is set in San Francisco, provides her own survey of criminous fiction and film on the topic. … Continue reading
Sam Spade’s Last Case
Another Bill Crider Tribute Moment. Hat tip to Bruce Townley.
When Mammoths Took the Subway
Los Angeles subway work uncovers array of Ice Age fossils A Tribute Moment to Bill Crider and his fun blog. Where will I get all the news on mammoths, crocs and gators now? Hat tip to Brian Leno.
Hammett: More Reviews from a “Careful Reading, Deep Thinking Advertising Man”
Terry Zobeck has raided the Library of Congress again, and found that they now have color copiers — but that copies of Western Advertising are a bit larger than their scanner bed, and that his scanner program just doesn’t do … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, News
Tagged Duncan Sisters, KGO, Library of Congress, Marc LaViolette, Nathan Ward, Richard Layman, Terry Zobeck, Western Advertising
Rediscovered: A Little Xmas Present for Hardboiled Fans
The December 18 ish of Publishers Weekly features an interview by our pal Patrick “Catfish” Millikin as advance promo for Kent Anderson’s February release, Green Sun. Put that one on your hardboiled shopping list for 2018. Kent is one of … Continue reading
Hammett: Chewing Over Crime and Communism
For Xmas on the Hammett front this year, obviously grabbing a copy of The Big Book of the Continental Op is first on the list — just try stuffing that floppy behemoth of a trade paperback into the old stocking! And anyone … Continue reading
