For those of you who follow All Things Considered on NPR, this will be old news. I can't tell you how excited I am to read the new short story by author Dashiell Hammett, "So I Shot Him." If anything is unusual about this release, it's obviously the simple fact that Hammett has been dead for fifty years.Hammett defined hard-boiled detective fiction in his day, setting the standards for authors ever since. His works were frequently translated into film, and found success wherever they went - both for his spare, conscientious writing style and the seemingly unsolvable mysteries it conveyed.
If you're looking for a writer to learn from, he's one to top your list. Any new finds in the deep drawers of his imagination, no matter how far from their original source, are worth our time, attention, and excitement.
