Title: Hammett Unwritten


Author: Owen Fitzstephen, Gordon McAlpine (Contributer)


Genre: Mystery


Published: February 12, 2013


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.


Overall I gave this book 2 stars out of 5.