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
Death Lit
Essays and Reviews Selected from Fifty Years of Writing 1974–2024
Willeford
The Book
Category Archives: Dash
Hammett: A Jeopardy! Infiltration
Jeopardy! used a Hammett clew less than a week ago, but the legend and lore can muscle its way in any time. S42 E127, March 3,2026. The Final Jeopardy! shoot-out question in the category 20th Century Movie Memorabilia: In 2025 … Continue reading
Hammett: And Another Dashiell
Everyone else may well know that rocker Alice Cooper has a son named Dashiell Cooper, b. 1985, also a rocker. I just stumbled over the news during casual browsing on the net. No doubt many more celebrities named a kid … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Another Ace from Jeopardy!’s Sam Spade Suit
Or would that be a swig from the Nick & Nora Club Martini? Tournament of Champions Quarter Final, Day Two — 1/20/26 — Jeopardy! S42E97. First round. Category: The Tale that Wags the Dog. For $800: This beloved pooch owned … Continue reading
Hammett: Killer Critic
Will Murray, pulp historian and latter-day Kenneth Robeson, just sent me a link to “a biographical page about a writer who committed suicide a few months after his last book received a scathing review by Dashiell Hammett.” The bio on … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Lit, News
Tagged Doug Anderson, J. Aubrey Tyson, literary suicides, Richard Dalby, Will Murray
Hammett: Jeopardy! Won’t Leave Him Alone
The week ended with Jeopardy! invoking Hammett’s name yet again: S42E90. 1/9/26. A Champions Wildcard showdown. Double Jeopardy round, $2000 slot in the category Adapted for High School: Rian Johnson adapted what he called “the weirdly poetic style of Dashiell … Continue reading
Hammett: Another Downpour in the Atmospheric River of Black Birds
And tomorrow another entry in the Sam Spade Sweepstakes rains down. Check out the review by James Reasoner. James likes this kind of thing, even mentions he enjoyed the prequel novel Spade & Archer done by Joe Gores a few … Continue reading
Hammett: It’s Raining Black Birds
As Sam Spade comes roaring into Public Domain with the New Year, Steeger Books offers an edition of The Maltese Falcon using the original text from Black Mask — intro by pulp historian Will Murray. Serious book collector types will … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, News
Tagged Black Mask, Book Collecting, Mark Coggins, Poltroon Press, Sam Spade pastiches, Steeger Books, Will Murray
Hammett: Dashammet
Will Murray digs away in aging archives, turning up cool tidbits. Here’s Will: I came across these excerpts from Mort Weisinger’s Pony Express gossip column in Writer’s Review back in the 1930s. “DASHIELL HAMMETT is busy in Hollywood working for … Continue reading
Posted in Dash, Film, Frisco
Tagged Erle Stanley Gardner, Mort Weisinger, Will Murray, William Powell
Hammett: In the Jeopardy! Matrix
Obviously deeply imbedded in the neurons that summon up clews for Jeopardy! What can I say, the ghost of Hammett strikes again. On November 13, S42E49, in the first round. Category: Whosolvedit? The $400 clew: With the name of a … Continue reading
