A blast past, but a terrific guest blog here from Paul Brazill’s site, courtesy of  Aaron P Clark.

Clark relates how Hammett has been a main force of genre influence for crime writers everywhere, in spite of the fact that he was over looked in his day, and still is in certain literary circles.

” As the anniversary of Hammett’s death nears, I think crime writers of today can still learn a lot from how he lived and wrote…always fresh and never formulaic. He helped solidify a kind of crime writer’s paradigm. He wrote fast, drank hard; he was a master of sharp dialogue, double entendre and quick wit…a renegade style of writing, the kind that if he were alive today would keep him off of Oprah’s big yellow couch…” Clark