'Nine Tailors' & 'Murder Must Advertise'

Are we doing this again? 

Are we back in the saddle? 

Truth is, it never really stopped. 

'The Glass Key'

Allegedly Dashiell Hammett’s favorite novel, it is the final of his for the 1,001 list. I’ve enjoyed all of his novels and have taken a liking to the crime genre.

It’s served as the source to a number of adaptations in addition to an inspiration for the Coen brothers’ Miller’s Crossing. It’s also the namesake of the Glass Key Award, an honor bestowed on the author of the top crime novel in Scandinavia. 

So long, Dashiell. 

'The Thin Man'

Dashiell Hammett published five novels. I've read three. The Thin Man was his final one and the last one I've read.

Hammett wouldn't write again. Twenty-seven years from the time The Thin Man was published and his death in 1961.

The Thin Man was made into a very famous and well-regarded film starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. Maybe one of the few times the film is as good as the book, or vice versa. There were many sequels to the films in addition to a TV series.

The Thin Man has a very different tone from a lot of Hammett's other works. The protagonist is actually a couple, Nick and Nora Charles, the former being a retired detective sucked into a case involving some acquaintances seemingly invading his home. Nora is a precocious, liberated and smart woman. Really, if you want an early flag bearer for the feminist movement in literature, how can you not include Nora Charles. If there's anyone that doesn't answer to anyone in the whole story, it's her.

This is an easy-going narrative. The Charleses are wise-cracking know-it-alls seemingly viewing this thread of murder, deceit and manipulation like spectators at a Civil War battle. They tend to rise above it and do not get caught up in the fray (except for getting grazed by a bullet) unlike some of Hammett's other detectives.

'The Maltese Falcon'

The fact that this was adapted 11 years after publication with Peter Lorre, Humphrey Bogart into one of cinema's finest films sort of does the book an injustice.

It's really good and I think better than some of Dashiell Hammett's works. It also marks the introduction of Sam Spade, one of the foremost literary detectives of all time and the model for Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe.

Spade is interesting only because his train of thought, his motivations and his drive is completely and utterly unknown to everyone. Even the dumb characters in the book.

Spade works to "solve" a number of issues. He dislikes the cops as much as he dislikes the criminals that are working the other side. His partner is murdered and his motivation for finding the murderer lies with the adage that a guy has to stand up for his partner, even after they are murdered. He also says a partner getting murdered is bad for business. Meanwhile, Spade is screwing his partner's wife and, thusly, becomes suspect No. 1 for the police.

All the while, we get brief glimpses into what drives Spade. We think he is a character with morals. He's also a guy that suggests he'd let his girlfriend get away with murder if there were a greater financial reward.

Certainly, Spade is not a black-and-white character, not unlike the anti-heroes in popular cable TV series like Jimmy McNulty in The Wire, Tony Soprano in The Sopranos or even the serial-killer serial killer, Dexter. These are complex figures, who are probably inherently bad people, yet we can't help but think they are good and a lot of things they do is good.

Spade calculates the risk versus the reward in every scenario and skates the thin patch of slippery ice between being lawful and good and immoral.

Meanwhile, the Maltese Falcon is still out there somewhere.

'The Big Sleep'

This crime novel is known for its complexity and varying characters all playing different roles with different intentions, many of them secret.

It is often tough keeping up with these characters, who they are and what they want. And by the time you think the mystery is solved there comes Ray Chandler with another twist, another truth and another turn of the screw.

How complex is this novel? Chandler was shocked to learn after publication that the murder of the man in the car dumped in the bay was never explained.

It was not only the basis for the Bogart-Bacall film, but also for the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski.

'The Hound of the Baskervilles'

Again, isn't Sherlock Holmes kind of a dick? I mean, he completely uses poor Watson -- a doctor, no less -- as if he were some useless pawn. And as a means of placating his friend, Holmes tells Watson how invaluable he is and blah, blah, blah.

If I were Watson I would ask Holmes who the doctor was and go on my way. Especially if I'm having to travel halfway across the country to stay at some one-horse town in some spooky house where people are dying left and right.

And how much is Watson being reimbursed? Does he get like 20 percent of whatever Holmes is making?

Also, why was the escaped convict treated with such little regard. Was he created for the sole purpose of weaving the web of the story and arbitrarily lived and died along with the ebb and flow of the story? How cruel, even for a murderer.

'L.A. Confidential'

This film was released 1997. I hardly doubt that anyone realized that it would -- for all intents and purposes -- launch the careers of three of the better actors' careers of the past 20 years.

Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey were relative no-names. None of which had done their marquee films ("Gladiator," "Memento" and "American Beauty") and all three put up fantastic performances here.

Ironically, the one name who adorns all the posters and DVD covers is Kim Basinger, who hasn't done a single good film since (and has since gone on to terrorize Alec Baldwin). Right now, I'd put her below -- in terms of a career -- Pearce, Crowe, Spacey, David Strathairn, Danny DeVito and James Cromwell. Hell, even Ron Rifkin was in "ALIAS."

I consider this a better, more updated version of "Chinatown."

Also, it was good to see "Lloyd Braun" playing the actor on Spacey's cop TV drama.

'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'

The trick to reading and figuring out an Agatha Christie mystery is realizing there's a twist.

Then thinking that the twist is obvious in a perfect way so you either go with someone not as obvious or even more obvious.

Then it turns out the murderer is the initial person you thought -- the person that was appropriately obvious.

And there's an Agatha Christie mystery.