Gene Poschman's Blog: My Journey as a Writer - Posts Tagged "mystery"

As I promised I posted a new chapter every couple of days of my work in progress. The title of the book is "The Case of The Jade Dragon". It was a rough draft. I also explained that it would be removed the first week in May. That time has come. The first chapter is still available at -

http://grposchman.wix.com/authorsite#...

In a couple of days, the book will be released for publication and should be available a couple days later at Amazon in both paperback and eReader format. For those who read it, I hoped you enjoyed the book, and the final version should read even better. Were there any plot changes? Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?

The Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I purchased this book because I had read a couple of books by Dashiell Hammett and I wanted to see how he handled the short story. In truth, my first introduction to Hammett was watching the Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart on television. I was lost much of the time, but what wonderful characters. My next meeting was watching "The Thin Man" with William Powell and Myrna Loy. I wasn't as lost, and the characters were marvelous. I never tried to figure out Whodunit, I just enjoyed the stories. Later I read the "Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man" and since I knew most of the story and the wonderful characters I just enjoyed Hammett.

Ironically, "the Continental Op" was the first time I read Hammett stories without already knowing the outcome. It is a fast read, and it too is full of marvelous characters. What is even better you can read a complete story in a short period of time although there is some carryover.

I don't remember exactly which story, but the idea for the Jonas Watcher series, I am writing, had its inception in this book.

Gene Poschman



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