Welcome to Pseudopod Towers. Get comfy. Find a cushion to hide behind. You're going to need it.

Pseudopod episode 933 for August 11th, 2024, The Hollow Temple by

Dationalhammit, part one of three.

Happy 18th birthday, Sudapod.

18 years ago today, we started this wild journey with Scott Sigler's Bagman. Feels Wild being part of a podcast that is old enough to vote.

We thought there was a little better way to celebrate this milestone than with a three-part episode

from one of America's foundational writers.

My father-in-law, Barry, has loved reading the works of Dashlhammit, so I wanted to dedicate this story

to him.

Happy Suopod's birthday pops.

Dashal Hammett was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels in short stories.

Among the characters he created are Sam Spade, the Maltese Falcon, Nick and Nora Charles, the Thin Man, the Continental Op, Bread Harvest and the Dane curse, and the comic strip character, Secret Agent X9.

In his obituary in the New York Times, he was described as the Dean of the Hard Boiled School of Detective Fiction.

Time included Hammett's

1929 novel, Red Harvest, on its list of the 100 best English language novels published between

1923 and 2005. In 1990 the Crime Writers Association picked three of his five novels for their list of the

top 100 crime novels of all time.

Five years later, the Maltese Falcon placed second on the top 100 mystery novels of all time as selected by the Mystery Writers of America.

Red Harvest, The Glass Key, and the Thin Man were also on the list.

His novels and stories also had a significant influence on films,

including the genres of private eye, detective fiction,

mystery thrillers, and film noir.

...