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: PW
Rediscovered: Despite Westlake Owing Me a Beer. . .
Somewhere around here I have a postcard from Donald Westlake saying something like, “Beer? Beer? Surely we can settle this in a civilized fashion.” Years ago I went to a big writers deal in Fort Lauderdale, and Westlake was there, … Continue reading
Death Lit: Gbontwi’s Gumshoe
While I’m knocking out fast, easy blog posts, I noticed that my most recent review for PW made it through edit 90-95% intact. Whoa. Guess I can link to that one. Crime novel, London neo-noir sort of thing. Surf over … Continue reading
Rediscovered: McNaughton v. Vance
What was I thinking? In the post a month plus back where I kind of talked myself into rereading Brian McNaughton’s The Throne of Bones for Halloween, I realized that somehow I managed to put forth this opinion: McNaughton bears … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Oakley Hall and 1940s California
If you want to check it out, my latest review for PW just popped. The gist and much of the wordage is mine (if you can’t tell the especially distinct Don Herron touch, you’re unfamiliar with my writings of the … Continue reading
Hammett: And Stein
Nathan Ward just informed me of a tidbit he did for Crimereads, about the meeting of Hammett and Gertrude Stein. If you have his bio of Hammett, The Lost Detective, you’ve already got the gist of the incident. Especially these … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Understudy for Love/Death
In other Willeford News, Hard Case Crime is poised for the official release of Understudy for Death in about a month — first time Willeford’s 1961 novel Understudy for Love has seen reprint. If you’ve never been willing to fork over … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, Willeford
Tagged Gold Medal, Hard Case Crime, Joe Servello, PW, Robert McGinnis, Understudy for Death
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: The Big Book of the Continental Op
Due to hit the book racks in a month or less, you get your chance to read each and every Op story — in order, if you want — in texts taken from the original pulp appearances. Unless you’re one … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Arrggghhh. . .
When I was roaming the Internet the other day, browsing memoirs of Ed Gorman (and I just had the memory that during my phone chat with him, Gorman also rushed to the defense of John D. MacDonald, who gets a little … Continue reading
