Nightmare Town: Stories"Hammett's pioneering hard-boiled style has been much imitated, but the original--packs a wallop."--The New Yorker Here are twenty long-unavailable stories by the master who brought us The Maltese Falcon. Laconic coppers, lowlifes, and mysterious women double- and triple-cross their colleagues with practiced nonchalance. A man on a bender awakens in a small town with a dark mystery at its heart. A woman confronts a brutal truth about her husband. Here is classic noir: hard-boiled descriptions to rival Hemingway, verbal exchanges punctuated with pistol shots and fisticuffs. Devilishly plotted, whip-smart, impassioned, Nightmare Town is a treasury of tales from America's poet laureate of the dispossessed. |
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Page 7
... laughed into the scared fat face of the beefy man - laughed with a menacing flash of even teeth and dark slitted eyes . Then he picked up his hat , pocketed the pistol , and vanished from Steve's sight . The fat man sat down . Steve ...
... laughed into the scared fat face of the beefy man - laughed with a menacing flash of even teeth and dark slitted eyes . Then he picked up his hat , pocketed the pistol , and vanished from Steve's sight . The fat man sat down . Steve ...
Page 39
... laughed . " Izzard's frying nicely ! " he cried , and clapped his hands together . “ Come , come ! The desert awaits ! " Steve turned to call the blind man . Rymer stepped out from behind his screening door . In each of Rymer's hands ...
... laughed . " Izzard's frying nicely ! " he cried , and clapped his hands together . “ Come , come ! The desert awaits ! " Steve turned to call the blind man . Rymer stepped out from behind his screening door . In each of Rymer's hands ...
Page 307
... laughed . " They could try . One of them , Louis James , is a - member of Gene's staff , I think . I honestly don't know any more about them than I've told you . " " Think they'd know where your husband is ? " She shrugged . " They're ...
... laughed . " They could try . One of them , Louis James , is a - member of Gene's staff , I think . I honestly don't know any more about them than I've told you . " " Think they'd know where your husband is ? " She shrugged . " They're ...
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afternoon ain't Alec Rush asked Big Jake Binnett Bliss Boyer chair cigarette Colyer Continental Op corner coupé Cudner Dain Curse dark Dashiell Hammett dead desk detective detective fiction district attorney door doorway Dundy Estep Eveleth Exon eyes face feet floor Fremont front girl going gone gray grinned guess Guild Hammett hand Kearny killed knew Landow laughed leaned Ledwich lips Loney looked Maltese Falcon man's minutes Miss Miss Bliss Mount Royal Avenue mouth murder night nodded O'Gar Ogburn opened Ormsby pocket police Red Harvest Sergeant Hooley shot shoulders smiled Spade stared Steve stood stopped story street suppose sure talk taxicab telephone tell There's thing thought told took Toplin trying turned voice wait walked What's Whitacre wife window woman Wynant