"For aficionados of the genre, the unearthing of new Hammett stories is akin to Christians discovering an epilogue to the New Testament. . . . These stories are among Hammett's best. . . . [His] prose is always savvy and sturdy, but for the man who invented 'hard-boiled, ' it can also be surprisingly elegant."--San Francisco Chronicle

"This fascinating collection of hitherto unpublished or ungathered tales . . . will be a treat for any fan of the father of the hardboiled detective story."--Wall Street Journal

"Hammett's talent allowed him to create moving and realistic characters using seemingly perfunctory details--the literary equivalent of a Picasso doodle. . . . Any Hammett fan will surely want to peruse this."--Columbus Dispatch

"The Hunter and Other Stories caulks a crack in American literature. . . . The non-crime stories in The Hunter and Other Stories are good enough to make one wonder what a different kind of writer Hammett might have become had he published these stories before he began to make a living with crime fiction."--The Daily Beast

"Layman and Rivett have expertly introduced and edited these stories. . . . The Hunter and Other Stories is a very good book by a great writer. Perhaps more important, it opens a wide window upon the creativity of one of our most important American storytellers of the twentieth century."--Barnes & Noble Review

"Very entertaining writing. . . . This book is a must-read."--Huntington News

"Hammett uses words like scalpels to surgically reveal slivers of seediness whether it concerns detectives or wronged men or wronged women. If you want to discover why Sam Spade's dad burst onto the scene like a 30s literary nova, here's your chance."--Will Durst, Progressive Magazine

"A pure pleasure to read."--Jeff Baker, OregonLive.com

"A labor of love . . . this collection is certainly a worthy monument to an important and brilliant literary career, one that reveals a heretofore hidden side of one of America's most important fiction authors."--Bookreporter.com

"Fans of crime writer Dashiell Hammett . . . have been waiting decades to read the stories collected in this book."--Publishers Weekly (boxed review)

"Fascinating."--Booklist

"Tantalizing."--Detectives Beyond Borders

PRAISE FOR DASHIELL HAMMETT

"An acknowledged literary landmark."--New York Times Book Review

"Hammett . . . wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before."--Raymond Chandler

"The exuberance of language, the relish with which seediness is described . . . it's a pleasure to imagine young Hammett cutting loose with whatever rascally high jinks he could cook up."--Margaret Atwood