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: Jeopardy!
Hammett: That Penetrant Fog
Per norm, the clews keep dashing in. Jeopardy! S43E28. October 21. First round. For $600 in the category Tales of the City: “(Sam) Spade paid his fare and left the taxi cab”; this city’s “night-fog, thin, clammy, & penetrant, blurred … Continue reading
Rediscovered: The Op Cracks Jeopardy!
Hammett keeps his hand in the game. Offhand, I don’t recall the Continental Op showing up in Jeopardy! clews before now. Usually it’s Sam Spade or Nick and Nora Charles — or Asta. Sometimes Lillian Hellman or Joe McCarthy. San … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Someone at Jeopardy! Kind of Likes Fritz’s The Wanderer
Ten years ago I admit I was shocked to see Fritz Leiber show up as a clew on Jeopardy! Not him by name, but his 1964 paperback original novel The Wanderer, which copped the 1965 Hugo for Best Novel. This … Continue reading
Hammett: Birthday 132
Today, Hammett’s 132nd birthday. And the guy keeps hanging in. On May 1st he cracked Jeopardy! again. S4E170. In the Double Jeopardy round. Category: Life on TCM. $800 clew: In “The Thin Man” Myrna Loy catches up to her husband … Continue reading
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: The Jutting Jaw of Jeopardy!
Once more the clew crew at Jeopardy! dips into the deep trough of the life and career of Dashiell Hammett to summon up hard-boiled ghosts of the past. Seas42 Ep124. February 26, 2026. First round. $400 clew. Category: First Lines … 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: 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: 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
Rediscovered: The Shadow, Surrounded or Surmounted?
As I said I would, I dug into the various lists of seven fave The Shadow novels suggested by the poll in The Shadowed Circle Compendium. I figured out the ones that sounded like Must Reads for me. Five of … Continue reading
Posted in Lit
Tagged Anthony Tollin, Evan Lewis, Jeopardy!, Maxwell Grant, The Shadow, The Shadowed Circle Compendium, Walter B. Gibson
