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Joe Gores: Hammett (USA 2020) From the Publisher: Part thriller, part fictionalized history, part biography, this gripping tale centers on the legendary author of The Maltese Falcon. Recounted in colorful underworld argot by three-time Edgar Award winner Joe Gores, the story traces Dashiell Hammett's eager return to his career as a private investigator, as he attempts to uncover the truth behind the brutal murder of an old friend amid the bordellos and gambling dens of 1920s San Francisco. But many years behind a typewriter have dulled Hammett's detective skills even as they've sharpened his fear of death -- leaving him all too aware that one misstep could end both his life and his hopes for literary immortality. The basis for a 1982 film adaptation by Wim Wenders, it offers a splendid introduction to Hammett's world. "Not since Hammett and Chandler has anyone written quite as well as Joe Gores." -- Ross Thomas Joe Gores: Hammett. Dover Crime Classics, ISBN: 9780486842172 (May, 2020), 288 p., $14.95, eBook $11.99 (?).
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Joe Gores: Hammett (UK 2002) From the Publisher: Joe Gores: Hammett. Orion Books, ISBN: 0752851829 (December, 2002), Crime Masterworks 26, 237 p., £6.99.
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Joe Gores: Hammett (USA 1982) From the Publisher: "FAST, FURIOUS, AND FUNNY, GORES' THRILLER IS PACKED WITH PURE ENJOYMENT FROM START TO FINISH." -- San Diego Union-Tribune Like Dashiell Hammett, Joe Gores actually worked as a private eye before he became a mystery writer. He is the winner of three Edgar Awards and broad critical acclaim for his Daniel Kearny Associates series and his other novels, teleplays, and screenplays. Cover art: Zoetrope Studio Joe Gores: Hammett. The greatest mystery writer of our time, caught in the middle of one of his own plots. New York: Harper & Row, 1982, Perennial Library #631, ISBN: 0060806311, 251 p., $2.95.
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Joe Gores: Hammett (USA 1976) From the Publisher: "FAST, FURIOUS, AND FUNNY, GORES' THRILLER IS PACKED WITH PURE ENJOYMENT FROM START TO FINISH." -- San Diego Union-Tribune Like Dashiell Hammett, Joe Gores actually worked as a private eye before he became a mystery writer. He is the winner of three Edgar Awards and broad critical acclaim for his Daniel Kearny Associates series and his other novels, teleplays, and screenplays. Joe Gores: Hammett. Ballantine Books, ISBN: 0345251709 (October, 1976), 262 p., $1.95.
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Joe Gores: Hammett (USA 1975) From the Publisher: Except for one man. A private detective-turned-writer named Samuel Dashiell Hammett, once again manhunting because an old friend to whom he refused help has been brutally murdered. During his search through the teeming alleys of Chinatown, through the cathouses and speakeasies and gambling hells of the city, Hammett discovers that the years of writing have dulled his hunter's instincts, have made him fear death -- and that failure to resharpen his long-unused skills as a private detective could end not only his life, but his chance for literary immortality. Joe Gores, like Dashiell Hammett, spent years as a private detective before becoming a novelist; only he could have conceived this stunning novel. He boldly probes the enigmas of the tough, moody, brilliant man who wrote such classics as The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man, and he probes the brawling, corrupt city where Hammett's Sam Spade and Continental Op lived and worked. His dialogue crackles and sparks with the wry, tough humor of the twenties. His characters are thinly disguised portraits of the men and women who shook and shaped this most fascinating of American cities. His plot, drawn from actual events in San Francisco's corrupt political past, casts harsh light on a stark and bloody era. Hammett is a novel of unusual brilliance -- part thriller, part fictionalized history, part biography, all knife-edge suspense. In it a man's search for several kinds of truth leads him -- and the reader -- to ultimate revelations about the murderer within us all. As hard, as multifaceted as a carbonado diamond, Hammett is a reading experience you will never forget. Joe Gores was a private detective in San Francisco for twelve years before he turned to the typewriter and won an Edgar Award for his first novel in 1969. Since then he has published three more novels (winning a second Edgar), one hundred short stories, and one highly praised book of nonfiction. Critics have compared him to Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Erle Stanley Gardner -- and to Dashiell Hammett. About Hammett, Mr. Gores has said, "I wanted to paint a fictionalized, yet honest portrait of the man who created an authentic and original voice in American literature and to paint that portrait against the backdrop of his times -- the 1920's -- and his city -- San Francisco." An "Author's Note" at the end of the novel describes the goals, the research, and the unique experience of creating that portrait. The reader will find that Gores has succeeded brilliantly, while at the same time writing a first-class, edge-of-the-chair suspense novel. JOE GORES has been compared with Dashiell Hammett ever since his first novel won an Edgar in 1969. Gores, who became a San Francisco private detective himself out of his fascination with Hammett's Continental Op, has now written a classic novel about Hammett -- not the failed sophisticate of the 30's, but the working writer of the 20's. It is an authentic portrait of Hammett and his era, impeccably researched by Gores over half a lifetime (see "Author's Note" at end of book) -- and a superb example of American crime fiction at its finest. "Not since Hammett and Chandler has anyone written quite as well as Joe Gores. He will probably be regarded as one of the masters in years to come." -- Ross Thomas About a previous novel by Gores: Jacket design by Honi Werner Joe Gores: Hammett. A Novel. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1975, ISBN: 0399116001, 251 p., $7.95.
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