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
Tag Archives: Brian Leno
Rediscovered: Splat Like a Cat on the Wall, a Review by Brian Leno
The Shadow. Gangdom’s toughest foe. Wearing a black slouch hat, and a cloak with upturned collar, he carries twin automatics and depopulates the world of criminals faster than a poor relation diving for a seat at your dining table. … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Brian Leno, Brian Sitts, Dennis Lynds, James Patterson, Tex Albritton, The Shadow
Rediscovered: Purist Outrage!
The idea that Brian Leno and Tom Krabacher and I cast wary eyes toward the new James Patterson “Shadow” novel recently drove the noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook into a berserker frenzy. “Why the [sulphurous blasphemy] do you … Continue reading
Rediscovered: First, Classic Shadow
Before he makes an attempt at reading the new “Shadow” novel by James Patterson, Brian Leno selected one of the original pulp era sagas to compare it against. “Pretty close to being done with Gray Fist, one of the earlier … Continue reading
Rediscovered: More Cap Shaw
A few days ago Brian Leno sent in scans of a book he has that comes from the library of famed Black Mask editor Joseph T. “Cap” Shaw — nothing less than the Hammett-edited Creeps by Night. Today he sends … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Autographs, Black Mask, Book Collecting, Brian Leno, Cap Shaw, Simon and Schuster, The Hard-Boiled Omnibus
Rediscovered: A Shadow Puzzle
Brian Leno greets me this morning with a puzzler. “A little quiz for the Mean Streets, Don: Which of these three does not belong?” The reboot or reimagining or defunding of The Shadow by James Patterson came out the other … Continue reading
Posted in Lit, News
Tagged Brian Leno, Doctor Sax, Jack Kerouac, James Patterson, The Shadow, Tom Krabacher, William S. Burroughs
Rediscovered: Lost Quinn (and Hall)
The noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook doesn’t want you to think that Brian Leno is the only guy who has so much stuff in his collection he doesn’t know what he has — hell, no! Here’s Kevin with … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Argosy All-Story Weekly, Austin Hall, Brian Leno, Frank A. Munsey, Homer Eon Flint, Jack Palance, Kevin Cook, Roads, Seabury Quinn
Rediscovered: Lost Adventure
Brian Leno has been ditching unwanted odds and ends on eBay, Stephen King and stuff like that, saleable at the moment (but what savant would bet money on those books keeping their value, long-term?) — which led to him sending … Continue reading
Hammett: Collecting Creeps by Night
Autograph Hound Super-Sunday again, in this instance spurred on by Terry Zobeck mentioning to me that he finally landed a copy of the Hammett-edited Creeps by Night in dustjacket — after years of having it as a Grail Item on … Continue reading
Posted in Dash
Tagged Autographs, Black Mask, Book Collecting, Brian Leno, Cap Shaw, Creeps by Night, J. Paul Suter, Terry Zobeck
Hammett: Couffignal
Like a bloodhound with his nose ever to the hardboiled pavement, a few days ago Brian Leno let me know that Library of America put up another Continental Op yarn by Hammett as the feature Story of the Week. I … Continue reading
Sinister Cinema: Ditko
Brian Leno sends in a pithy movie review that for some of us, says it all: “Last night watched Doctor Strange and, for the most part, I enjoyed it. Amazing that with all the computer generated special effects to display … Continue reading
