I read a couple of stories from THE BIG KNOCKOVER, that 1972
Hammett collection put together by Lillian Hellman, too see
what local colour I could find. Hammett had some great first
lines: "'We expected them home yesterday,' Alfred Banbrock
ended his story" from "The Scorched Face," and the classic
"It was a wandering daughter job" from "Fly Paper."
There's an expression in "The Scorched Face" I can't make
out. A farmer in Knob Valley, a ways out of San Francisco,
finds a burned picture of a missing woman and the Op goes out
to investigate. He goes out to the site with a cop, Paget.
"Paget was following some sort of track. I couldn't see it,
either because he and the Italian [farmer] blotted it out
ahead of me, or because I'm a shine Indian." I know "shine"
is an old disparaging term for blacks, but I just can't
figure out what it means here.
Dell Mapback #129 was THE CONTINENTAL OP. I picked up a cheap
copy a couple of years ago just for the cover--the contents
had already detached so I just recycled them. The map on the
back is of San Francisco, with Embarcadero running north
along the right hand side of the page, then north-west up to
the top; Market runs north-east up from the bottom left, and
14th (Street?) runs along the bottom, above the legend that
maps out locations from "Fly Paper," "Death on Pine St." and
"Zigzags of Treachery." It's nice being able to follow the
Babe McCloor chase on a map. I imagine Don Herron covers that
on his tour.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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