Guns, Gams And Gratitude: Dashiell Hammett Remembered

"I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of," Dashiell Hammett once said, but there's a writer or twenty over at January Magazine who begs to differ. "I think there is the truth of the streets in Hammett that Chandler never got to," says Ed Gorman, somewhat controversially, while, "the writing pummelled me," says our own Ken Bruen of his first Hammett experience, The Dain Curse. Others contributing include George Pelecanos, Bill Crider, Peter Robinson and Ray Banks, who likes to think of Hammett "as one of the first great growlers of crime fiction." Which is nice ...