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The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like Arthur Conan Doyle, who begins The Sign of Four with Sherlock Holmes in a drug trance, Dashiell Hammett can't get his detective novel started without an infusion of aestheticism. The Maltese Falcon, named as it is for an objet d'art, opens with two descriptions… Continue reading Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler My rating: 3 of 5 stars "They pay brisk money for this crap?" Raymond Chandler asked of the science fiction genre. His rhetorical question followed his lively parody of the genre's trappings ("I checked out with K19 on Aldabaran III, and stepped out through the crummalite hatch on my… Continue reading Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn My rating: 4 of 5 stars Aesthetics: This is a commercial thriller. I am not exactly sure why some describe it as a literary crossover--aside from the fact that its characters are somewhat superficially literary, Flynn's prose is commercial through and through, zippy and poppy, written at least in part… Continue reading Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
