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: San Francisco Mysteries
Rediscovered: San Francisco Mysteries Leading the Pack
Randal Brandt of the Bancroft Library popped in the image above — he’s at the podium giving a talk for Cal’s Homecoming events on Saturday October 10. On the screen behind him you’ll see the cover of the 1982 edition … Continue reading
Two-Gun Bob: June 11, 1926 — 1936 — 2022
Today marks the anniversary of the suicide by gunshot at age thirty of Texas author Robert E. Howard, sitting in his Chevy outside the family home in Cross Plains. Our resident Autograph Hound Brian Leno lays out another John Hancock … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Frisco, Lit, News, REH
Tagged Autographs, Book Collecting, Boris Karloff, Brian Leno, Collier's, Hugh Wiley, literary suicides, San Francisco Mysteries, Steve Eng
Frisco Beat: Worley Recalled
Yet another mini-memoir of crime writer William Worley has wandered into the traffic on These Mean Streets, this one from Linda Shaw — a student from one of his classes in Lowell High: I had not thought about Mr. William … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit
Tagged Linda Shaw, Lowell High School, San Francisco Mysteries, William Worley
Frisco Beat: Back to Chinatown
For those of you in the game of collecting San Francisco Mysteries, Connie di Marco is one of the current writers jumping into the fray — on April 26 her new one Serpent’s Doom, fourth entry in her series of the … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: Kent Harrington in Person in Green Apple
Quick. Before they concoct an excuse to shut everything down again. Get over to Green Apple on Ninth Avenue tomorrow night to see Kent Harrington interviewed by Kevin Hunsanger about his new San Francisco crime novel Last Seen. I’ve already … Continue reading
Posted in DMac, Frisco, Lit, News
Tagged Book Collecting, Green Apple Books, Kent Harrington, Kevin Hunsanger, San Francisco Mysteries
Frisco Beat: A “Lost Book” Mystery
Every couple of years or so I get asked about a book someone has read and forgotten the title of — almost always a book that is a mystery set in San Francisco. Hey, you do the seminal statement, people … Continue reading
Rediscovered: Chatting with Joe Gores
Crime writer Mark Coggins just wrote with the news: “I finally transcribed my (long) interview with Joe Gores about the Falcon from 2007.” Sure to be a surfing destination for Hammett fans. Plus Mark mentions that a recent book has … Continue reading
Frisco Beat: “Mr. Worley in 1963”
Just got a note in from Keith Young, yet another student in the classes once taught by William Worley, author of the classic San Francisco mystery My Dead Wife. Here’s Keith, verbatim: “A recollection from his class at Lowell. One day … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit
Tagged Keith Young, Lowell High School, My Dead Wife, San Francisco Mysteries, William Worley
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
Frisco Beat: More William Worley
Trying — unsuccessfully, no doubt — to clear the decks of multifarious backlogged potential posts and flat-out delayed posts, I found this note from James Langdell, who surfed into Up and Down after finding the bit Lester Hardy contributed about San … Continue reading
Posted in Frisco, Lit
Tagged James Langdell, Lester Hardy, Lowell High School, San Francisco Mysteries, William Worley
