Books

‘Hunter and Other Stories’ (2013) cleans out Hammett’s files

The last scraps of Dashiell Hammett’s writings were published in “The Hunter and Other Stories” (2013). It includes 15 never-before-published stories, including three screen treatments

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Wood’s ‘Man Who Knew Too Much’ (2015) a pleasant analysis

Reading Michael Wood’s monograph “Alfred Hitchcock: The Man Who Knew Too Much” (2015, Houghton’s Icons series) is like chatting with an erudite friend about a

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Add ‘The List’ (2023) to your list of contemporary culture dramas

First-time novelist Yomi Adegoke dramatizes the #MeToo era in surprisingly thrilling fashion in “The List” (2023). While the idea of private “he said/she said” dramas

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Hardboiled fiction that goes over easy: ‘Big Book of the Continental Op’ (2017)  

In collecting all of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op stories (1923-30), “The Big Book of the Continental Op” (2017) brings a reader back to the excitement

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Taylor’s ‘Hitch’ (1978) is cornerstone bio of Hitchcock

Much like how Alfred Hitchcock’s films have not lost their effectiveness through the decades, John Russell Taylor’s “Hitch” (1978, with a 1980 postscript after the

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‘Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes’ (1927) a spooky conclusion to Doyle’s canon

Arthur Conan Doyle writes his last dozen Holmes stories from 1921-27, collected in “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes” (1927), as if knowing they will be

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‘His Last Bow’ (1917) gathers Holmes’ penultimate adventures

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes output slowed as he built up entries for his second-to-last book, “His Last Bow” (1917), which gathers eight short stories

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‘The Book Thief’ (2005) is a beautiful novel about death and Nazis

I’ve read enough books now to develop a personal taste and know what topics to avoid, but after reading “The Book Thief” (2005) for my

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Preston & Child hop dimensions in ‘Angel of Vengeance’

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child let their interest in 1881 New York run wild in “Angel of Vengeance” (August, hardcover), the 22nd Pendergast novel and

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‘Valley of Fear’ (1915) does the multi-genre riff even better

Modern mystery readers are surprised by Arthur Conan Doyle’s structure for his first Sherlock Holmes novel, “A Study in Scarlet” (1887): We get the full

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