Hammett Unwritten

by Owen Fitzstephen, Gordon McAlpine (Afterword)

A worthless bird statuette-the focus of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Or is it?As Dashiell Hammett closes his final case as a private eye, the details of which will later inspire his most famous book, he acquires at a police auction the bogus object of that case, an obsidian falcon statuette. He casually sets the memento on his desk, where for a decade it bears witness to his literary rise. Until he gives it away. Now, suffering writer's block, the famous author begins to wonder about rumors of the falcon's "metaphysical qualities," which link it to a powerful, wish-fulfilling black stone cited in legends from around the world. He can't deny that when he possessed the statuette he wrote one acclaimed book after another, and that without it his fortunes have changed. As his block stretches from months to years, he becomes entangled again with the scam artists from the old case, each still fascinated by the "real" black bird and its alleged talismanic power. A dangerous maze of events takes Hammett from 1930s San Francisco to the glamorous Hollywood of the 1940s, a federal penitentiary at the time of the McCarthy hearings, and finally to a fateful meeting on New Year's Eve, 1959, at a Long Island estate. There the dying Hammett confronts a woman from his past who proves to be his most formidable rival.And his last hope.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Noir

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Gordon McAlpine (who sometimes writes as “Owen Fitzstephen”) is the author of Mystery Box (2003), Hammett Unwritten (2013), Woman With a Blue Pencil (2015), and Holmes Untangled (2018)–all shape-shifting novels that play fast and loose with the mystery genre, as well as a middle-grade trilogy, The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe. He’s also the co-author of the non-fiction book The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH. He has taught creative writing and literature at U.C. Irvine, U.C.L.A., and Chapman University. He lives with his wife Julie in Southern California. “Owen Fitzstephen,” by the way, is the name of a character, a dissolute, alcoholic writer, in Hammett’s The Dain Curse.

Gordon McAlpine is the Edgar Award nominated author of the literary mystery novels, Holmes Entangled, Woman with a Blue Pencil, and Hammett Unwritten, as well as other acclaimed novels and non-fiction. He is also the author of an award winning trilogy of novels for middle grade readers, "The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe". He has published short fiction in journals and anthologies both in the U.S.A and abroad. A graduate of the M.F.A. program in creative writing at U.C. Irvine, he taught for many years at Chapman University in Orange, California.

In March 2018 Seventh Street Books published McAlpine's literary mystery novel Holmes Entangled, which Booklist, in a starred review, called "a fascinating read, smart and entertaining..." In 2015, Seventh Street Books published the Edgar nominated Woman With a Blue Pencil, about which Publishers Weekly wrote in a starred review: "McAlpine's greatest accomplishment is that the book works both as a conventional mystery story and as a deconstruction of the genre's ideology: whichever strand readers latch on to, the parallel stories pack a brutal punch." Joyce Carol Oates wrote that Woman with a Blue Pencil is a novel, "that Kafka, Borges, and Nabokov, as well as Dashiell Hammett, would have appreciated."

In 2013, Seventh Street Books published Hammett Unwritten, written under the pen name Owen Fitzstephen, to equally enthusiastic reviews. The Gumshoe Review wrote: "Hammett Unwritten raises questions about the nature of fiction and those who create it that will stay with you long after you finish the book." Paste Magazine raved: "Hammett Unwritten accomplishes the next-best thing to writing the unwritten--it satisfies the insatiable longing for another Dashiell Hammett novel... In a way far more satisfying than the truth could ever be, it answers the nagging question of why Hammett never wrote another book... [It] gives his life the hard-boiled second act it most certainly deserved."

Between 2013 - 2015, Viking published McAlpine's middle grade trilogy of novels, "The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe", which consists of The Tell-Tale Start (2013), Once Upon a Midnight Eerie (2014), and The Pet and the Pendulum (2015). Publishers Weekly referred to the series in a starred review as "Entertaining and original...Endlessly fun and ultimately very satisfying on every level." The audio version of The Tell-Tale Start was selected as Audible.com's Best Children's Book, 2013.

The Los Angeles Times called Mr. McAlpine's first novel, Joy in Mudville (1989), an "imaginative mix of history, humor and fantasy...fanciful and surprising", and The West Coast Review of Books called it "a minor miracle." Joy in Mudville was re-released in 2012.

The Way of Baseball, Finding Stillness at 95 MPH (2011), McAlpine's first book of non-fiction, was written in collaboration with Major League All-Star Shawn Green and was published by Simon and Schuster to outstanding reviews.

McAlpine's other novels include The Persistence of Memory (1998), and Mystery Box (2003).

He is a member of the Author's Guild, PEN USA, The Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers and The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. He lives in Southern California with his wi

Reviews

[Travis Starnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to give this book points for uniqueness. I haven’t read a novel quite like this and considering how many books, and specifically mysteries, I read that is saying something. The book takes meta to a whole new place and for that I commend Fitzstephen. If you are knowledgeable about Hammett himself then this book might be tough to read as it completely recreates the author’s life and experiences. However if you only know him from his works then this book is a unique mystery worth checking out.

There is however some reliance on knowing the original works. If you haven’t read any of Hammett’s books then first, shame on you, and second, you will miss a lot of what is happening here. For those uninitiated to his work go out and read the Maltese Falcon before checking out Hammett Unwritten.

The only real problem with this book is the pacing. It isn’t that the book is slow but it comes more in spurts. Action will be moving along at a good clip then slow down for scenes of introspection then kick in gear again. You also spend a lot of time in Hammett’s head which is fine at the beginning but there were moments when I really felt the lack of character interactions.

http://homeofreading.com/hammett-unwritten/

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given that the black bird used as a prop in John Huston's movie adaptation of The Maltese Falcon just netted over $4 million at auction, you might be justified in wondering if perhaps the bidder had been reading McAlpine's Hammet Unwritten, a metafictional mystery about just why Hammett stopped writing fiction so suddenly and completely.

Hammett Unwritten is sharp, smart, and utterly perfect in tone - but frankly, all of that's going to be wasted on you if you haven't read (or at least watched) The Maltese Falcon, or, better yet, Hammett's entire corpus, to which multiple sly allusions are made throughout the text. This one, boys and girls, is for the Noir Heads among you; the uninitiated had best go do their homework before attempting it.

[Paula Lyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

You need to be at least a little familiar with The Maltese Falcon, if not, go watch the movie before you read this. Then have a great time reading this supplement. It's a brand new story about that story, very meta. Also very fun, enjoy.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if the Maltese Falcon were real? What if Dashiell Hammett, who said that all of the characters he wrote about were based on people he'd actually known or knew about and who was himself a Pinkerton operative before becoming an author, really had an adventure similar to the events he made so famous in The Maltese Falcon?

According to "Owen Fitzstephen" (Gordon McAlpine) in Hammett Unwritten, that's precisely what happened. Following in the footsteps of many an author who has unearthed various Holmes stories in a "battered tin dispatch box," McAlpine found a type-written manuscript buried in the Lillian Hellman collection of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. What he had found was a manuscript with the byline "Owen Fitzstephen." The name sounded familiar and when he did a search, he discovered that Fitzstephen was the name of a mystery writer in Hammett's The Dain Curse. The description of the writer in the story is very Hammett-like and it would seem that McAlpine had found a long-lost Hammett novel written under a pseudonym.

And in a nutshell, what the story tells us is that in Hammett's last case as a Pinkerton man he ran into a crowd of treasure-hunters that would eventually give him the idea for one of his most famous books. Only the story wasn't over when Moira, the girl upon which Brigid O'Shaughessy was based, was taken away to jail. Hammett winds up keeping the worthless "Black Falcon" as a reminder of the case and the bird sits on his desk as he starts turning out story after story. Years later, when Moira is released from her imprisonment at an insane asylum, she comes back into Hammett's life and asks him for the fake Falcon. She spins a story so fantastic that his pride forces him to tell her to take it. she claims that the bird holds mystical powers and the only reason he's been a successful writer is because it has been in his possession. To prove her wrong, he hands it over. That will be the last year he publishes a novel. Throughout the rest of his life, various characters from his own real-life Falcon adventure keep popping up--and all seem intent on finding the "fake" Falcon. And each has a slightly different tale of the origins of the bird. But wherever it came from; whatever story is true--and they say one of them must be; they all reaffirm that the bird is powerful and carries good fortune to whomever possesses it. Was Hammett "a sap" (to quote from his famous novel) to have given it up? The story follows Hammett from 1930s San Francisco to Hollywood and from New York to a federal penitentiary where he's imprisoned during the Red Scare. It all leads to a fateful meeting on New Year's Eve where Hammett will find the bird once more and finally learn the truth. Or will he?

This is a fun book. Fun for those of us who love The Maltese Falcon, for Hammett fans and hard-boiled fans alike. It is an incredibly good pastiche of Falcon and Fitzstephen/McAlpine manages to get the characters playing characters exactly right. It is also the most elaborate explanation of writer's block I've ever heard and it explores the superstitious nature that many writers (and other) have (needing a certain routine, having to wear a certain sweater, etc) in order to be successful in their field. Is the power in the object itself--or does it only become powerful if we believe in it. Excellent take on a beloved story. Four stars.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks!

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

An ad hoc logical fallacy where the plot and characters of The Maltese Falcon were a real case he worked as a Pinkerton, turned into a mystery ranging across Hammett's for-real life from shortly before the publication of The Thin Man to shortly before his death. Less confusing than it sounds. Extraordinarily clever.

[Trekscribbler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The mark of a truly good piece of fiction is that it somehow changes the way you think about reality. The mark of a truly great piece of fiction is that it – quite literally – changes the way you think about fiction. It transcends the routine that is so much of the written word, and it breathes life into characters in such a way that they become imprinted on your mind via the mind’s eye, perhaps even continuing on forever in whatever elaborate adventures a reader can dream up all of his own.

Interestingly enough, the same truth can be proven for good films versus great films – of which I’ve always considered John Huston’s superlative version of THE MALTESE FALCON to be. The film is what led me to Dashiell Hammett’s original novel, and, since that day many moons ago, it’s what drive me to continue seeking out vintage crime mysteries, preferably ones with a private eye in a lead role. Now I’ve been blessed with uncovering HAMMETT UNWRITTEN … and my world has been forever again turned on its head.

(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and characters. If you’re the kind of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last two paragraphs for my final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)

Weary with the business of private investigations, Dashiell Hammett finally called it quits on one career, instead rushing headfirst down the road of another: writer. He acquired the legendary counterfeit statue of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ in that last case, and only then did the man find his greatest talent as a gifted storyteller. But what unfolds once he surrenders the black bird to the woman he once loved will challenge the man’s perceptions and, perhaps, present him with his most challenging riddle yet: was I responsible for all that I’d done as a novelist, or were there other elements at work?

Like our wary narrator, you won’t believe your eyes as UNWRITTEN turns everything Hammett fans know upside down. The inspirations of his life – including those people who stirred him to weave his most memorable tale – take on new meaning as they collide in a new reality which unfolds curiously over thirty years. Like that seminal tale, the black bird is near (and dear) the heart, only this time around it’s postulated that the statue’s origins are even more heavily shrouded in mysticism. Hammett – as a character – remains a skeptic (much as would have Sam Spade or Nick Charles), but each new development pushes him closer and closer into acknowledging that the life he led may not have been entirely of his own volition.

Surprisingly, UNWRITTEN also serves as a cautionary tale about how one lives one’s life. For reasons that have been subject to some debate and speculation, Hammett ceased writing mysteries, instead engaging in a myriad of ‘Progressive’ causes, love affairs, and generally self-destructive behaviors. He penned his last novel in 1934 but lived until early 1961. While UNWRITTEN gets laudable mileage out of postulating a unique circumstance to explain his departure from the world of writing, it also delivers a knock-out blow reminder to those who may’ve forgotten what mom always told us: life is short, so make sure you do what you’re destined to do while you have the time you’re given.

In the conclusion, maybe Hammett does. Maybe the lesson learned here is that he’s best at solving mysteries instead of writing them. Maybe – just maybe – he had to experience just this particularly troubled existence in order for him to achieve whatever lasting peace he’d have in the known, knowable universe. Still, I can’t help but imagine that those last few fitful passages that come into his mind when he’s facing the ultimate femme fatale indicate that there was much more greatness yet to come from the mind of Dashiell Hammett, the writer, than there ever would be Dashiell Hammett, the detective. Those books are, instead, forever lost to time. Sadly, that potential was realized all too late, and that’s the moral to the story I’m stuck with.

As is some folks’ lot in life, I’d imagine that there are critics who might be quick to dismiss UNWRITTEN as a crassly commercial product meant to capitalize on another’s fame or spotlight in order to enhance one’s own reputation. In short, that would be foolish. As I said in my opening, great fiction causes the reader to reconsider everything he’s learned about the various ‘fictions’ that have come before, and I challenge you – nay, I dare you – to read UNWRITTEN and not reach the same realization I did: you can never – ever – think about THE MALTESE FALCON in the same way ever again. In short order, that is no small accomplishment … and Owen Fitzstephen (or Fitzstephan, for those in the know) and/or Gordon McAlpine did it with such ease one might blame the ghost of the late Hammett himself for such a triumph.

HAMMETT UNWRITTEN is written by Owen Fitzstephen with ‘Notes’ and ‘Afterword’ provided by Godon McAlpine (read them, people, as even those will challenge you to think about what you’re about to read AND what you’ve just read). It’s published by Seventh Street Books with a list price of $13.95 … a bargain for the wisdom it contains.

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION POSSIBLE. I loved it from start to finish. If you know anything about Dashiell Hammett and/or THE MALTESE FALCON (in any variation), then you owe it to yourself to pick this up and read it today. I guarantee that it’ll change the way you see those various worlds in ways you’ve possibly never imagined.

In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Seventh Street Books (an imprint of Prometheus Books) for providing me with a complimentary copy of HAMMETT UNWRITTEN by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Razor sharp stabby stars. The better for killin' [Just for Lenore]

"This whole thing has been about love, Sam."
"That's ridiculous," he snapped.
"Of course it is. Only the grift makes sense. Greed, avarice, lies... all those things are rational. But love? Jesus Christ, what else but 'ridiculous' would you expect it to be?"

First a confession. I'm kind of meh on Dashiell Hammett. I love me some Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald. But Hammett? I could take him or leave him. The only novels of his I remember reading for sure are Red Harvest and The Thin Man. Pretty sure I read some of the Continental Op stories too, but I don't know which ones. Hammett was a good writer, but he just doesn't grab me the way Chandler and Macdonald do.

Now the point to mentioning that is this. I don't know much about Hammett's life. I'm vaguely familiar with a few details I've picked up in reading about Chandler or Macdonald, but that's about it. This book makes Hammett its main character, and uses some of his real life history as part of the story, but I personally have no idea how much artistic license is used nor was I always sure which bits were based on his real life.

This is not the first book I've read to use real life authors as main characters. Hammett Unwritten is less ambitious than say, The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, but it is far more successful in what it does. (Take note Paul Malmont.)

The premise here is that The Maltese Falcon was based on Hammett's actual real life last case as a Pinkerton agent, and that it's not the whole story. It plays with the falcon legend and also attempts to explain why Hammett suddenly stopped writing after The Thin Man. You wouldn't think writers block would make for a very interesting plot point, but it does.

While the prose here didn't really grab me, I find myself wondering if the author was trying to imitate Hammett's style, which would suit the conceit of the novel, while at the same time explain why it doesn't grab me, because Hammett's doesn't either. But as I mentioned, I'm not a big Hammett fan and I haven't read him recently enough to say if that's what the author is doing. Viewpoint is third person via Hammett, and mostly past tense though this interleaves with shorter vignettes in present tense.

The story is quite a lot of fun, and I'll give the author props for pulling of an ambiguous ending that, for once, I actually liked. I'm not normally a fan of the ambiguous or open ended ending, but this one suits the story perfectly and I think adds a little something extra.

So, definitely recommended for readers who enjoy mystery and the 'hardboiled' subgenre in particular, and there's no need for any great familiarity with Hammett or his work. Having seen The Maltese Falcon once would probably provide sufficient frame of reference. Dedicated Hammett aficionados may find things to nitpick which went right past me though.

[Maxine · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if Dashiell Hammett’s novel, The Maltese Falcon was really a memoir, that the Sam Spade character was based on Hammett himself and the falcon was the last case he worked as a Pinkerton? And what if the falcon found in the story wasn’t a fake after all but the real thing, truly ‘the stuff that dreams are made of’, with the power to bring good luck to whomever possesses it? What if the falcon stood on Hammett’s desk during the years he wrote but then he gave it away? And, finally, what if that is the real reason why Hammett never wrote another book?

These and many more ‘what ifs’ are the premise of author George McAlpine’s novel, Hammett Unwritten, written under the pseudonym Owen Fitzsimmons (or perhaps it’s the other way around). It's a fun look at one of America’s greatest writers and the mystery of why he stopped writing.

McAlpine (or should I say Fitzsimmons) not only looks at Hammett’s real life, his drinking, his womanizing, his relationship with Lillian Hellman, his politics, and most importantly, his writer’s block but he also brings to life many of the characters from The Maltese Falcon: Brigid, the Fat Man, and Cairo for example. McAlpine does a nice job of recreating the kind of noir dialogue which made Hammett famous, the story is well-plotted and entertaining and it kept my interest throughout. In Hammett Unwritten, he has taken the writer’s block and somehow turned it into a very interesting and compelling mystery. Sure, the story’s improbable but in the words of the original Sam Spade I can only say, ‘don’t worry about the story’s goofiness. A sensible one’…well, it just wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hammett

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hammett Unwritten by Owen Fitzstephen aka Gordon McAlpine was published in 2013 and professes to be possibly written as an autobiography of Dashiell Hammett the author of The Maltese Falcon.

This slim novel reads like a play and is fun. The pacing is spot on. It made me think and sent me to Google to find more information about Dashiell Hammett.

McAlpine’s writing is clever and reminds me of Oscar Wilde. He uses quotes from Hammett’s previously published articles that give writing advice to craft a story that professes to tell why Hammett suffered a horrible writer’s block for the last 30 years of his life. I loved how he incorporated tales from Hammett’s life as a detective into the story.

I haven’t read anything by Hammett, yet I enjoyed this novel and found it interesting and entertaining. If you’ve read Hammett, you may enjoy it even more. Recommend for adults.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always wondered why Hammett stopped writing books after his early fiction successes. This short novel tries to address the reason in a clever and intriguing way. I won't play the spoiler and go into the plot. I learned some interesting personal things about "Dash" although I don't know how accurate they are since this is a novel. He does a lot of drinking and reflecting back on his youthful days as a Pinkerton detective. Hammett Unwritten is a fast read.

[Garrett Calcaterra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for fans of Dashiell Hammett and/or THE MALTESE FALCON. It's a quick read that combines Hammett's biographical story with the legend of the Maltese Falcon into it's own mystery.

In full disclosure, the author, Gordon McAlpine, is a friend and a previous instructor of mine. Having said that, I don't simply read and review books from author friends if they're not good.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiendishly clever and outrageously entertaining. For fans of Hammett, especially The Maltese Falcon (book and movie), this is a must.

[Ann Sloan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the book and the John Huston’s movie version (there were two others made earlier) of The Maltese Falcon, nothing who is he says he is and nothing is what it appears. In Hammett Unwritten, what is true and what is imagined? This book continues that style.

A note: Owen Fitzstephan is the name of a character in Hammett’s The Dain Curse. McAlpine sensed that this character was autobiographical, that this character was Hammett himself.

McAlpine reports that he discovered the text, Hammett Unwritten by Owen Fitzstephen, at the bottom of a cardboard box of the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin (my alma mater, BTW). Thus McAlpine suggests that Hammett wrote this book, using a pseudonym from another novel, slightly altering the spelling.

Of course, McAlpine claims that this is not his real name, either, although it is.

Hammett Unwritten’s intent is to unmask the reasons of the 30-year block suffered by Dashiell Hammett. As far as we know, his last publication was The Thin Man in 1934; he died in 1961. It is generally acknowledged that Poe invented the detective story; it evolved with Doyle. Christie, Sayers, Marsh, Chesterton, Carr, and other British authors who wrote during the Golden Age of detective stories gave us outstanding mysteries and characters. But these were British detectives with sophistication and sleuthing acumen. Hammett was an American and had been a Pinkerton man.

Hammett brought his experience and background to the genre. He created a new kind of pulp fiction detective who knew how to take a punch and when and how to throw one. He worked for money; he was no amateur, no dilettante .

Sam Spade (BTW, Hammett’s first name was Samuel), Nick Charles, and the Continental Op had the intense integrity to put his own obstinate moral code and sense of justice before self-preservation or even the law. We don’t read Hammett’s stories to be dazzled by feats of deduction. We keep reading Hammett because his works because his detectives accept the violence of the world and are than more willing to get their hands dirty as they oppose it.
Raymond Chandler (I personally prefer him to Hammett) reflected on the genre Hammett invented in his essay “The Simple Art of Murder.” According to Chandler, Hammett “… took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley. Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people who commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse.”

In Hammett Unwritten, a worthless bird statuette –the focus of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon sits on Hammett’s desk.. Or is it? As Dashiell Hammett closes his final case as a private eye, had acquired the black bird at a police auction. For a decade it bears witness to his literary rise. When the novel opens on New Year’s Eve 1959, an aging Hammett is studying his own obituary, taken from a journalist who wrote it up when Hammett had a heart attack, but recovered unexpectedly. Then a flashback takes us back to 1933, when Moira O’Shea, aka Brigid O'Shaughnessy, appears at his door to collect the Maltese Falcon.

Now, in 1959, suffering from writer's block, the famous author begins to wonder about rumors of the falcon's "metaphysical qualities," hinted at by Moira, which link it to a powerful, wish-fulfilling black stone cited in legends from around the world. He recognizes that when he possessed the statuette he wrote one acclaimed book after another, and that without it his fortunes have changed. As his block stretches from months to years, he becomes entangled again with the scam artists from the old case, each still fascinated by the "real" black bird and its alleged magical powers. A maze of events takes Hammett from 1930s San Francisco to the glamorous Hollywood of the 1940s, a federal penitentiary at the time of the McCarthy hearings, and finally to a fateful meeting on New Year's Eve, 1959, at a Long Island estate. There the dying Hammett confronts a woman from his past who proves to be his most formidable rival. And his last hope.

This book asks a simple question: why did Dashiell Hammett stop writing? After a brilliant 12-year run that included The Maltese Falcon and ended with The Thin Man, the master of hard-boiled detection turned from the typewriter. Did he do so because he lost the falcon statue he picked up in a 1922 caper? Cutting back and forth through Hammett’s life, McAlpine may get some details wrong, but the overall portrait feels accurate. The story shines in scenes with real people such as Lillian Hellman, though encounters with people who supposedly inspired characters in The Maltese Falcon are less successful. Fans of Hammett and noir ought to enjoy requisite shocks of recognition.

In Hammett Unwritten, Hammett is drawn into a mystery far stranger than he ever could have imagined, and the ending had me engrossed. It could have been the Maltese Falcon that signaled the onset of Hammett’s writer’s block; after all, it is the belief in an object, rather than the actual object that can create fear and loathing. I was ready to believe the author’s theory.
What Hammett fans still wonder, though, is what made Hammett so willing to let go of Sam Spade, the Continental Op, Nick and Nora Charles and his other evocative characters? In the end, many issues explain Hammett’s blocked last decades, and they all probably tell part of the story. We really can only guess what laid waste to Hammett’s genius.

In the late 1930s he began to turn his attention to politics—civil rights and workers’ rights, in particular—often using his celebrity as leverage, and that his commitment to the causes he embraced proved absolute and unwavering.

Hammett Unwritten achievement is that it accomplishes the next-best thing to writing the unwritten—it satisfies the unappeasable longing for another Dashiell Hammett novel. It picks up precisely where Hammett left off. What’s notable about Hammett Unwritten is McAlpine’s intuitive knowledge of what fans of Hammett most want. Hammett Unwritten gives his life the hard-boiled second act it most certainly deserved.

[PoligirlReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, quick read. Without giving too much away, there are a lot of fun twists and turns, right up to the final page. The characters are memorable, and it's easy to see Sam/Dash hanging out with this rough set. I found myself wanting to read a biography on Hammett afterward.

[Maryann Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

the continued legacy of Daschell Hammett a writer of famous books/movies and Owen continues their adventures, always mysteries and last minute changes of what happened with this writer. fairly interesitng.

[Lorrie Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. The story is a must read for anyone that loves "The Maltese Falcon," Dashiell Hammett, or just a great mystery. Loved it!

[Geri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting premise having the Maltese Falcon be a true case that Hammett worked back in his PI days.

[Deborah Necessary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for mystery lovers and The Maltese Falcon!

[Kostas Kanellopoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gordon Alpine sure loves meta fiction and that commie genius writer Dashiell Hammett

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of like Joe Gores' "Hammett," this is a fictional tale of Dashiell Hammett. The big difference here is that Owen Fitzstephen's tale is more a meditation than a traditional mystery, a meditation on "the stuff that dreams are made of". Sam Hammett, former Pinkerton detective and famed author of "The Maltese Falcon," suddenly stops writing at the height of his fame and career.

Fitzstephen's Hammett actually worked a case of the Black Falcon. Afterward, he acquires the statue at a police auction. The writing begins and Hammett gains fame and fortune until the woman from the Falcon case comes to claim the black bird. Without it, Hammett's writing ability dries up. Is the bird really "the stuff that dreams are made of"? Something more? Less. Is it all in Hammett's mind?

Fizstephen writes an intriguing tale offering a consideration of why Dashiell Hammett simply stopped writing with "The Thin Man". There's not a lot of Hammett-style action to be found, and the book plays out in a series of vignettes. You can easily imagine this book as a play. But it's brief, tight a very readable, presenting a believable impression of Hammett as frustrated writer who has literally lost his muse. And despite the supernatural powers the Falcon may embody, the conclusion is striking, heartbreaking and not at all unbelievable.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hammett has always been something of a mystery. After writing a handful of excellent novels (with one masterpiece in there), and a number of very good short stories, he stopped writing, at what one would have thought would be the height of his powers. There are lots of theories about this, most having to do with what the theorizer thought of Lilian Hellman and/or Hollywood. Maybe it's better, for us, that he didn't go on to write a dozen or more Sam Spade or Continental Op stories; their relative rarity makes them all the more valuable and you have to wonder if they wouldn't have become, as many mystery series do, become repetitive. Imagine a Hammett, tired of Spade, having him wrestle some bad guy at the top of a waterfall somewhere, and they both fall to their deaths.


Anyway, this book presents a kind of explanation for the block; I won't go into it, but it involves some characters and objects from Hammett's most famous novel. This novel tells the story of Hammett's life in small scenes scattered over 30 years, each involving some aspect of his life as it relates to that great novel and it's purportedly real-life (or "real-life") inspiration. It's a fun book, with some great scenes with luminaries such as John Huston. The author (or "author") tries to get a little too meta, for my tastes, in the afterword, but that's fine, it's still a fun book.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of the story is based on the book The Maltese Falcon and the idea it wasn't just a story.

The best part of the book were the quotes by Dashiell Hammett at the beginning of the chapters. I think to really like it you should already be a fan of Hammett's.

This book was sluggish and slow. There are only so many ways for the author to tell us the character had writers block. I think with the passage of twenty years without writing another book was a good way. I am not sure he needed to devote every other chapter to Hammett sitting in front of a typewriter getting nothing done.

Up until the last couple of pages I believed not very much of the story was devoted to the mystery. I was bugged by this. In the end it was all relevant which could be cool if there had been more than Hammett's bemoaning his lack of writing for most of the book.

[Jordanna East · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this novel from the publisher and I'm glad I did. It was a short read at only 177 pages, but it was intriguing and "unputdownable." Of course, I had to do a quick Wiki search of Dashiell Hammett and The Maltese Falcon to refresh my memory, but even if I hadn't, I would have been able to follow the story just as well.

Hammett Unwritten was such a unique concept, treating The Maltese Falcon as though it were nonfiction with only the names changed by Hammett, who is the main character in Unwritten. The novel takes the reader through the decades following the events of the Maltese Falcon, enveloping Hammett in the mythical intrigue surrounding the falcon figurine. The twists at the end of this novel were mind-boggling enough, but when you get to the Afterward, you're left reeling at the possibilities, the line between fact and fiction completely blurred. Well done.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced and enjoyable read that blends fact and fiction. I particularly liked the use of quotations from a piece that Hammett wrote in 1927 on advice to young authors: Hammett spoke about how writers can get their readers to believe otherwise fantastical things. If the characters in a story all believe something, then it will "seem" real. The story will have an internally consistent truth--even if that one breaks from the real world outside. McLapine (using a nom de plume for a frame that I didn't buy and thought weakened the story) narrates the story of Hammett's life after his notorious writer's block, a life in which the real-life counterparts to his characters in The Maltese Falcon come back to haunt him, and in which he becomes obsessed with retrieving the notorious falcon itself. Although the dialogue at times was simple and bland, the overall conceit was compelling and clever and propelled the story forward.

[Stacia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read The Maltese Falcon (loved it) earlier this year, this is a great counterpart to the legend of Dashiell Hammett, Sam Spade, literary, movie, and real-life happenings related to all those topics. There is a lot of mix of fact & fiction in this book (as I found out after I was busy researching various things, such as Hammett having been jailed in the 1950s for contempt of court for proceedings relating to Communism, as he was head of a group that was labeled as a front for a Communist group. However, as he served in both world wars, he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery). Fascinating mix of story, characters, atmosphere, & a look at Hammett/Spade in the years after The Maltese Falcon. I would advise reading The Maltese Falcon first, though, to get the most out of this fabulous novella. A very nice addition to the noir/crime genre.

[Mark Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of the Maltese Falcon movie this was a fun what-if. Well written and reflective of the author's style. It was easy to plug my image of Sidney Greenstreet, Bogie and even Peter Lorre into their "real life" counterparts. The book moves fast and you never quite want to put it down until you know how it turns out.
The author (recognize the nom de plume?)also effectively weaves Hammett's biographical history so you feel you might actually be reading about his final adventure. What's true? What's false? At the books end you'll need to tell me. I'm still chewing on it. A good mystery.

[B. R. Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a fan of Dashiell Hammett and especially if you're familiar with The Maltese Falcon you should enjoy this book. I recently read The Maltese Falcon (2nd reading & I liked & appreciated it much more the second time around). Anyway, Hammett Unwritten is a very clever book & a very well imagined sequel to The Maltese Falcon. It's also fun to read if you are familiar with Hammett/Sam Spade sites in SF. I read it earlier this summer and I gave it three stars. Definitely 3 star plus in my view. Picked up the paperback for a $1 and it was well worth it.

[Sara Bartlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish I could give a 4.5, this book is brilliantly written. Long a fan of Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman, this book kept me reading, I couldn't stop. And the ending! Who wrote this book? That Afterword really had me going. I had to look up Owen Fitzstephen and Gordon McAlpine to figure out for myself just how this book came to be written, it's brilliant.

[Paul Minor · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of those books that you keep reading, hoping that there will be more. Nope. Very good capture of Hammett's character, and GREAT capture of writer's block, but the story left me cold. I'm not sure that the author really knew where he wanted to go. For serious Hammett fans only, I'm afraid.

[Patrick SG · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever "sequel" to the Maltese Falcon that mixes literary history and mystery to explain why Hammett never wrote anything after the Thin Man. It helps to be familiar with Hammett's life and the book, but if you've only seen the bogart movie you'll still get a lot out of it.