Even Death Can’t Keep Hammett Down

2008 isn’t even over--there’s still a presidential election to go, in addition to Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas. Yet I’m already anticipating the release of two historical crime novels next year--both having in some way to do with Dashiell Hammett, and the covers of which have suddenly appeared online.

The book that has me most excited at the moment is San Francisco author Joe Gores’ Maltese Falcon prequel, Spade & Archer. It’s set in 1921 and finds private eye Sam Spade taking on Miles Archer as his partner, even though Spade is still pissed at the man for stealing “his girl” while he was off fighting in World War I. The jacket art, shown at left, very much resembles the black-and-white title graphics of early 20th-century movie trailers, and should be eye-catching on bookstore shelves. Spade & Archer is due out from Alfred A. Knopf in February, though I’d be happy to get my hands on a copy well in advance of that. Even if Gores’ effort falls short of what readers might want from a Maltese Falcon prequel, this novel’s release will still be a historic event, no less significant than the 1989 publication of Poodle Springs, Robert B. Parker’s completion of a novel Raymond Chandler left unfinished at his death in 1959.

Due out in early April is Devil’s Garden, by Ace Atkins. It’s based on the scandalous, real-life 1921 death of 30-year-old actress wannabe Virginia Rappe, who breathed her last in a guest room at San Francisco’s downtown St. Francis Hotel--supposedly murdered during a sexual assault by famous film funnyman Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. The cover at right is in the same haunting, split-image style of Atkins’ previous two historical crime-fiction standalones, White Shadow (2006) and Wicked City (2008). Devil’s Garden shows what appears to be a San Francisco street on top, with the silhouette of a walking man on the bottom--ostensibly the shadow of Hammett, who in 1921 was working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. In Atkins’ tale, the future author is assigned to investigate the Rappe murder by Arbuckle’s lawyers--just as he did in history. The San Francisco Chronicle recalled a few years back that Hammett worked for the Pinkertons “until he became too sick to spend nights in the frigid fog tailing some mark. One of his last jobs was snooping for the defense in the scandalous case of Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle ...” Hammett, the paper noted, “thought Arbuckle was framed by the district attorney.”

As much as I wish to revel in the closing weeks of this year, when I can finally relax a bit, after writing two historical non-fiction books in 11 months, I am looking forward to devouring Gores’ and Atkins’ latest novels in the first months of 2009.

It’s good to have goals, right?