Customer Reviews

The Black Mask Murders: A Novel Featuring the Black Mask Boys, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner

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This 1994 novel is set in Southern California in the 1930s. It blends historical facts about real people with fictional characters for a mystery thriller. Copyright law prevents the use of a "Sam Spade", "Perry Mason", or "Philip Marlowe" but there is no restriction on using their authors. [Isn't that funny?] You will best appreciate this story if you've read those authors. This novel does not copy the styles of those authors, or reflect the life and speech of the 1930s novels. I've read that William F. Nolan wrote many of the scripts to the late, great "Twilight Zone" TV series in the late 1950s and early 1960s. One example where topics could be described as fiction rather than get bogged down in facts.

Chapter 1 introduces us to Hammett and his career. Sylvia Vane tells him about her gambling losses, and wonders if the roulette wheel is rigged. [Would a gambler ever give a sucker an even break?] She asks Dash to check it out, and makes an offer he can't refuse. This gambling ship sails past the 3-mile limit where state laws do not apply (Chapter 2). There is the usual electric atmosphere of a gambling casino to attract people who want to lose their money [the psychology of gambling]. Dash sees how the brake on the roulette wheel is used, but is caught and tossed off the ship! [Sam Spade wouldn't have been caught.] Next Sylvia Vane is stabbed to death in her lavish home (Chapter 4). A new development brings Hammett to New York to solve the kidnapping of Clare (Sylvia's daughter). Hammett will carry the jeweled skull to pay off the kidnapper. [Why not secure shipping?]

Chapter 6 tells how Hammett, Chandler, and Gardner try to rescue Clare from where they think she is being held. There is an explosion on the ship, but they cannot save Clare. [In Chapter 8 Nolan questions A.C. Doyle's character Professor Moriarty. Gerald Sparrow's "Vintage Victorian Murder" tells of Sayers the barrister who ran London crime for twenty years. Don't criticize what you don't understand.] Hammett and Gardner follow a lead to San Francisco but it doesn't pan out. Nolan shows his writing skills (Chapter 11). Chapter 13 describes a live radio show from the 1930s. Nolan also shows his knowledge of writers here. An "executive producer" is the guy who puts up the money for a film (Chapter 13). No mention here of Wall Street money.

They follow a lead to a curio shop, but the owner will tell no tales (Chapter16). Hammett fails to pass in disguise (Chapter 17). A chance acquaintance of Hammett tells him what she learned (Chapter 18). [The scenes in Chapter 19 seem like a caricature.] There is one big surprise! You can decide if the ending is believable (Chapter 20). [The quote "it was easy" sounds like from Mickey Spillane.] The "Cat's Eye" is certainly the stuff dreams are made from. [Was Hammett himself following a false idol?] This is an interesting novel. Few have blended fact with fiction and the results are not that great (the deus ex machina ending).

Fact: Mystery novel featuring writers Dashiell Hammett, Ray Chandler and Earl Stanley Gardner as amateur detectives trying to assist an old friend. Short fast paced, kind of basic mystery novel. First in a series of three.


Opinion: A good idea is one you that makes you comment "why didn't someone do this earlier?" Thats how I feel about this book (also Gores awesome Hammett novel). This novel is alot of fun, but that's what it is. If you want realism try Gores or the actual Hammett biography Shadowman. This book is a fun romp and isn't that what books should be?