Nature Girl
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Nature Girl
  • Classic
  • More Thrills and Laughs from Carl Hiassen
  • Disappointing
  • Eclectic and border-line cast of Hiassen
Nature Girl
Carl Hiaasen
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

GeneralGeneral | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Hiaasen, CarlHiaasen, Carl | ( H ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0307262995
Release Date: 2006-11-14

Book Description

Honey Santana—impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed “queen of lost causes”—has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls. She’s taking rude, gullible Relentless, Inc., telemarketer Boyd Shreave and his less-than-enthusiastic mistress, Eugenie—the fifteen-minute-famous girlfriend of a tabloid murderer—into the wilderness of Florida’s Ten Thousand Islands for a gentle lesson in civility. What she doesn’t know is that she’s being followed by her Honey-obsessed former employer, Piejack (whose mismatched fingers are proof that sexual harassment in the workplace is a bad idea). And he doesn’t know he’s being followed by Honey’s still-smitten former drug-running ex-husband, Perry, and their wise-and-protective-way-beyond-his-years twelve-year-old-son, Fry. And when they all pull up on Dismal Key, they don’t know they’re intruding on Sammy Tigertail, a half white–half Seminole failed alligator wrestler, trying like hell to be a hermit despite the Florida State coed who’s dying to be his hostage . . .

        Will Honey be able to make a mensch of a “greedhead”? Will Fry be able to protect her from Piejack—and herself? Will Sammy achieve his true Seminole self? Will Eugenie ever get to the beach? Will the Everglades survive the wild humans? All the answers are revealed in the delectably outrageous mayhem that propels this novel to its Hiaasen-of-the-highest-order climax.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Nature Girl.......2007-09-27

Ahhh, that perfect sizzle of steak done well I sit down, pick up my fork and knife and am ready to cut into a little slice of heaven, and the phone rings. Fish, or cut bait? Answer the phone, or get chastised for screening my calls? My steak will have to wait. I answer and a friendly, professional voice promises me a fast way to get out of debt, sell me magazines, or a great piece of real estate in Florida. Arrrgh, my steak is now cold and congealing upon my plate.

Telemarketers, I have always fantasized about tracking down one of these telemarketing creeps and turning the tables -- phoning his house every night at dinner, interrupting a nice, hot soak in the tub, or having him pick up the phone with hands covered in oven mitts. The main character in Carl Hiaason's new novel Nature Girl does just that.

Honey, the "Nature Girl" of the title, has just started dinner when-you guessed it-a telemarketer and interrupts her meal. Honey is a nice girl with some problems. She hears two songs in her head at once-like Nine Inch Nails, and Nat King Cole-and has decided that there's a decided lack of courtesy in the world. Old fans and newcomers alike will delight in Hiaason's 11th novel, another entertaining Florida romp.

Honey lures the unsuspecting telemarketer to the "Ten Thousand Islands" area of Florida with the promise of an Everglade inspired "eco-tour" trap, to lecture him on ethics and common decency. As with all of Hiaason's fiction there is a cast of extreme and zany characters. There's a sex-starved fishmonger: a half-breed, blue-eyed Seminole: a private investigator in search of the "footage of a lifetime": a co-ed wanna-be-hostage, and more.

This is classic Hiaason, so if you are an avid reader, you've seen this before. Even so, it's an enjoyable read. There's an eclectic cast of characters, witty dialogue and humorous phrasing. A nice addition is his strong character development of a young adult character. Hiaason has forayed into children's books with Hoot, a winner of a Newberry award, and Flush, and has obviously become comfortable with creating strong children characters. Hiaason's next book is rumored to be another children's book. Perhaps, a sequel to the award winning, Hoot-I have a feeling that he wanted Nature Girl to be that book, but his publisher demanded another adult novel.
Hiaason definetly sticks to the adage "write what you know". His fiction mirrors his concerns as a journalist and a native of Florida. His novels have been classified as "environmental thrillers" and are usually found on the crime fiction shelves in bookshops, though they can just as well be read as mainstream reflections of every day life. If you love Hiassen, you may want to check out Christopher Moore, who has been called "the unhinged Hiaason" and a man that Hiasson calls "the sickest man I know- in the best possible way."
Me? I'll be looking forward to both Hiaason's next novel as well as Christopher Moore's new book which is being published just in time for Valentine's Day, You Suck: a Love Story which is a sequal to Blood Sucking Fiends. Well, I have to vamoose. I hear the phone ringing.....

Author of "Hobo Finds A Home" and editor of "Of A Predatory Heart"

5 out of 5 stars Classic.......2007-08-16

Nature Girl is classic Carl Hiaasen. He takes crazy Florida and gives it a little twist and it's hilarious.

4 out of 5 stars More Thrills and Laughs from Carl Hiassen.......2007-08-05

Rollicking adventure with a cast of thousands (mostly mosquitoes and fire ants); this is delightful entertaining from Carl Hiassen in his typical best, poking fun along the way. Thoroughly enjoyable if you like Carl Hiassen's style. Tightly written, quick paced.

1 out of 5 stars Disappointing.......2007-07-26

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I read Skinny Dip and really enjoyed it. I went back and read more books by Carl Hiaasen as a result. This book just didn't do anything for me. In fact, I can't even get through it. Tried for a second time just recently and still couldn't finish. I think my big problem is that I just don't like many of the characters in the book. I found them rather irritating. With that said, I like Carl Hiaasen's work, as a whole, and will still check out anything new he writes. I'd say, if you want to read Carl Hiaasen, start with something else.

3 out of 5 stars Eclectic and border-line cast of Hiassen.......2007-07-25

Hiaasen is absolutely a fabulous author!! His novel brings together a cast of eclectic and "border-line" personalities into the swamps and keys of Florida with an undertone of environmental responsibility. An "off-her-meds" woman decides to teach a lesson to a telemarketer and his mistress by luring them into a lesson teaching get-away. Her ex-husband is trying to keep an eye on her, as is her 12 year old son. They end up crossing paths with a half-white half-Seminole young man who is hiding from the law due to the death of his first client and his voluntary hostage, a young co-ed looking for adventure and possible romance.
This tale is entertaining and intelligent as always in Hiaasen's approach to his anti-development message. Hiaasen delivers his message in an entertaining intricate story. This is not his best novel but when you are talking Hiaasen they are all good, this is just a little less great than his others.
Ten Thousand Islands
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Loved this one!
  • A Title as Good as the Book
  • One of White's Best Doc Ford Novels
  • best one yet
  • Excellent Florida mystery
Ten Thousand Islands
Randy Wayne White
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0425180433
Release Date: 2001-06-12

Amazon.com

Of all the Travis McGee wannabes who've appeared on the mystery scene since the death of John D. MacDonald, Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford, the marine biologist with an intentionally vague history of military espionage, comes closest to hitting the mark. In this seventh outing in a popular series that's never quite broken into bestsellerdom, Ford is finagled away from his beloved fish and his stilt house off Florida's Gulf Coast to investigate the grave robbing of a long-dead adolescent girl who had a remarkable gift for finding archaeological artifacts of a long-gone civilization of Calusa Indians. The centuries-old gold medallion that may have been buried with Dorothy Copeland has mysterious powers--at least, that's what a big Florida developer whose son is being groomed for high political office seems to believe. By the time Doc Ford starts investigating the incident, along with his oddly gifted friend Tomlinson (a druggie with a past as violent and mysterious as his own), more lives are at stake, including Doc's.

Ten Thousand Islands is based on a true story of multiple tragedies associated with the 1969 discovery of the medallion at the novel's center. But the complicated tale of mayhem and serial murder White weaves of it is all his own. Doc Ford is an increasingly interesting character whose love life takes up as many pages as the plot, but the community of Dinkin's Bay, with its fascinating and well-drawn minor characters, is as great a part of White's series as the denizens of Travis McGee's Fort Lauderdale marina were of MacDonald's. --Jane Adams

Book Description

Government agent-turned-marine-biologist Doc Ford returns in a steamy tale that begins with the suspicious suicide of a fifteen-year-old girl-and ends in a shadowy world of ancient ritual and modern corruption.

ONE OF THE MOST SATISFYING THRILLERS IN RECENT MEMORY. (Chicago Tribune)

Taut and engrossing. (Boston Globe)

A wild, dangerous adventure.(Denver Post)

Thrilling and strangely moving. (Miami Herald)

White takes us places that no other Florida mystery writer can hope to find. (Carl Hiaasen)

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Loved this one!.......2007-07-01

Doc Ford is great! This book is hard to put down. Definitely my favorite Randy Wayne White book! Just when you think it can't get better he twists the story to add another element. Great read! you won't be disappointed!

5 out of 5 stars A Title as Good as the Book.......2007-06-15

I ask you, how can a person with a sense of adventure possibly resist a title like "Ten Thousand Islands"? It sounds great and it is.

Doc Ford is up to more adventures and a lifestyle that appeals to men. I mean, he's not married, he lives in the stilt house in Florida, has a lot of friends (some quirky like Tomlinson, a wonderful character), and he has a lot of lady friends. Doc Ford's background is mirky, a lot of it spent on secret missions for a CIA type of organization. The average man will get lost most of White's novels, sailing away with him on some grand adverture.

I've enjoyed all of Randy Wayne White's novels. If you're not in the mood to read, then get them on CD. Ron McLarty does a super job with Tomlinson's voice! He makes him sound like Jack Nicholson--very funny. Tomlinson is a strung-out hippy type, whose ramblings contain surprising bits of wisdom. A very compelling character and friend of Doc Ford.

Also, highly recommended for men is "Sands of the Kalahari," by William Mulvihill, and "Cry Wolf," by Wilbur Smith. Both are up-in-the-night African adventures. Check out my reviews. The Sands of Kalahari
Cry Wolf

Your comments--good or bad--are appreciated. Thanks from one adverturer to another.

5 out of 5 stars One of White's Best Doc Ford Novels.......2006-11-27

In TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS Doc Ford and Tomlinson investigate the bizarre case of a dead girl's grave being dug up and her mother's home being burglarized by thieves who are in search of a gold medallion found by the girl shortly before her death several years ago. The story takes place around Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, Marco Island and Key Largo. The reader learns a lot about the ancient Indian culture of the people who lived in the area before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores. Most of this information is given by Nora Chung, a young graduate student who becomes a useful ally of Doc and Tomlinson early in their investigation.

TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS is an entertaining book - especially because of its rich descriptions of lower Florida geography as well as its abundance of engaging characters. I consider this novel to be one of White's best efforts.

5 out of 5 stars best one yet.......2005-09-03

This is the latest book in the Doc Ford series that I've read and it's the best so far. All the usual elements are in place: action, suspense, mystery, Florida, humor, science, sex, fishing, boating, and more. And as always we learn more interesting facts about the past of Doc and his buddy Tomlinson. Some of the revelations about these characters were fascinating and surprising. Now I'm ready to tear into Shark River.

5 out of 5 stars Excellent Florida mystery.......2003-11-22

Ten Thousand Islands has it all - an excellent sense of place, a hint of the supernatural, an archaeological puzzle, a twisted villian, and a competent hero. I lived in Florida during my childhood, which makes good Florida mysteries particularly enjoyable for me - and this is a good one.

White weaves the history of the Calusa Indians with modern-day grave robbers. Doc Ford searches for someone who desecrated the grave of a teenage girl - Dorothy, a girl with a mystic link to the history of Marco Island - a girl who may have been murdered.

A political candidate, his powerful businessman father, and hired thugs all appear to be looking for what was buried with Dorothy. Plain old evil, madness, and a hint of the supernatural weave together into a fast-paced and exciting story.

Very well done and a good read.
Pavilion Key: Isle of Buried Treasure
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Nice try
  • Entertaining and educational!
  • Pavilion Key : Isle of Buried Treasure
Pavilion Key: Isle of Buried Treasure
Greg Lewbart
Manufacturer: Krieger Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1575240793

Book Description

Pavilion Key: Isle of Buried Treasure continues the saga of Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission Officer Hal Noble, who once again finds himself pitted against corrupt individuals--their greedy plans could seriously affect one of the most endangered reptiles on earth, the Kemp's ridley sea turtle. This time the story takes Hal to Pavilion Key which lies at the leading edge of Florida's Ten Thousand Islands. This island was a favorite stop for Caribbean pirates in the 16th and 17th centuries -- but gold doubloons and precious stones aren't the only treasures buried in its sands. Pavilion Key, like Greg Lewbart's first novel, Ivory Hunters, weaves sharply drawn characters with classic mystery plots while touching on such important and timely topics as natural history, ecology, and conservation. Mystery lovers, nature buffs and discerning readers of all types will enjoy Lewbart's entertaining and educational adventures.

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Nice try.......2001-09-17

I give this book three stars simply because the plight of the sea turtles is a story that needs telling and retelling until the public is educated and the creatures are brought away from the edge of extinction.

On the downside, this novel, put out by a small science publisher out of Malabar, FL, could've used better editing. The text is filled with small grammatical errors (like pluralizing the Kemp's ridley sea turtle as "ridley's") that detract from the largely entertaining storyline. Otherwise, the sophomore effort by author/veterinarian Greg Lewbart is not nearly as polished as Florida thrillers penned by the likes of Hiaasen, McDonald, etc., and the factual background of the tale draws too heavily, even clumsily, from its primary source, the writings of Dr. Archie Carr.

That aside, the heart and devotion with which Lewbart writes is readily apparent, and his protagonist, Hal Noble, is a likable hero in Everyman's clothing. A laudable effort.

5 out of 5 stars Entertaining and educational!.......2000-09-22

This was a very entertaining and educational book. It had a great plot and once I started reading it, I found it difficult to put down. I read it in one day. I also learned a lot about sea turtles that I didn't know before. Read it!

5 out of 5 stars Pavilion Key : Isle of Buried Treasure.......2000-06-19

definitely read this book. It is one of the most excellent and interesting books I have read. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down. It was very entertaining but at the same time educational
Southwest Florida's Wetland Wilderness: Big Cypress Swamp and the Ten Thousand Islands (Florida Sand Dollar Book)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Southwest Florida's Wetland Wilderness: Big Cypress Swamp and the Ten Thousand Islands (Florida Sand Dollar Book)
    Jeff Ripple
    Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

    GeneralGeneral | Animals | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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    ASIN: 0813014549
    Big Cypress Swamp and the Ten Thousand Islands: Eastern America's Last Great Wilderness
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Big Cypress Swamp and the Ten Thousand Islands: Eastern America's Last Great Wilderness
      Jeff Ripple
      Manufacturer: Univ of South Carolina Pr
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover

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      ASIN: 0872498425
      Catch Fish Now!: In the Florida Keys, the Everglades, and the 10,000 Islands (Catch Fish Now!)
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Catch Fish Now!: In the Florida Keys, the Everglades, and the 10,000 Islands (Catch Fish Now!)
        Mike Babbidge
        Manufacturer: Pineapple Press (FL)
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

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        ASIN: 156164210X
        Everglades Wonderland for Boys and Girls (Gems of Our Nation)
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Everglades Wonderland for Boys and Girls (Gems of Our Nation)
          Lura D. Dickson
          Manufacturer: Dickson's Inc.
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback
          ASIN: B000INWT1M
          Moundville revisited. Crystal River revisited. Mounds of the lower Chattahoochee and lower Flint rivers. Notes on the Ten Thousand Islands, Florida (LC History-America-E)
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            Moundville revisited. Crystal River revisited. Mounds of the lower Chattahoochee and lower Flint rivers. Notes on the Ten Thousand Islands, Florida (LC History-America-E)
            Clarence Bloomfield Moore
            Manufacturer: Reprint Services Corp
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Library Binding
            ASIN: 0781245168
            Pictorial History of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              Pictorial History of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River
              Mary Beacock Fryer
              Manufacturer: Besancourt Publishers
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Paperback
              ASIN: B000T5O5D4
              Tales of South Florida and the Ten Thousand Islands,
              Average customer rating: Not rated
                Tales of South Florida and the Ten Thousand Islands,
                Jack Beater
                Manufacturer: Jack Beater
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Unknown Binding

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                ASIN: B0007E7SWM

                The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
                Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
                • The epitome of hard-boiled
                • GET IT- CRIME DOES NOT PAY
                • Classic Adventures of the Indomitable Continental Op.
                • A great writer flexes his muscles
                • Novellas from a Private Detective
                The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
                Dashiell Hammett
                Manufacturer: Vintage
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback

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                ASIN: 0679722599
                Release Date: 1989-07-17

                Book Description

                Short, thick-bodied, mulishly stubborn, and indifferent to physical pain, Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op was the prototype for generations of tough-guy detectives. He is also the hero of most of the nine stories in this volume. The Op's one enthusiasm is doing his job, and in The Big Knockover the jobs entail taking on a gang of modern-day freebooters, a vice-ridden hell's acre in the Arizona desert, and the bank job to end all bank jobs, along with such assorted grifters as Babe McCloor, Bluepoint Vance, Alphabet Shorty McCoy, and the Dis-and-Dat Kid.

                Customer Reviews:

                5 out of 5 stars The epitome of hard-boiled.......2007-08-14

                I've been a fan of Hammet for quite some time and I really like the Thin Man and the Maltese Falcon but my favorite of his is the Continental Op. Here we have a hero whose name we are never told! He is the epitome of hard-boiled, a man who can dish it out as well as he can take it.

                The Big Knockover is a nice collection of ten perfect short stories. The first, The Gutting of Couffignal, is the story of a small village under seige and has a neat twist. Fly Paper will keep you guessing.

                4 out of 5 stars GET IT- CRIME DOES NOT PAY.......2007-07-05

                Dashiel Hammett, along with Raymond Chandler, reinvented the detective genre in the 1930's and 1940's. They moved the genre away from the amateurish and simple parlor detectives that had previously dominated the genre to hard-boiled action characters who knew what was what and didn't mind taking a beating to get the bad guys. And along the way they produced some very memorable literary characters as well. Nick Charles, Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe are well known exemplars of the action detective. However, on the way to creating these literary works of art Hammett did journeyman's work at the detective genre in various pulp detective magazines. The Big Knockover series of stories is from that period.

                The unnamed universal Continental Operative who is the central character of the stories is the prototype for Hammett's later named detectives. He has all the characteristics that mark a noir detective-tough, resourceful, undaunted, and incorruptible with a sense of honor to friend and foe alike that sets him apart from earlier detectives. Although the stories are mainly set in San Francisco the Op branches out to other locales in some of the stories but he keeps those same virtues. If you want mainly well-thought out stories that are also well-written this is for you. Additionally, and this may be as good a reason to read this book as the stories is the Introduction provided by Hammett's long time companion the playwright Lillian Hellman.

                5 out of 5 stars Classic Adventures of the Indomitable Continental Op........2004-07-12

                "The Big Knockover" is a collection of 10 short stories, 9 of which originally appeared in "Black Mask" or "Mystery Stories" magazines, 1923-1929, and feature Dashiell Hammett's famous hard-nosed, always unnamed Continental Op detective. Several of these stories find the Continental Op out of his usual element in far-flung or exotic locales. "The King Business" takes place in a fictional Balkan nation of Muravia, of all places, and involves a political coup. "Corkscrew" is so named after an Arizona desert town, complete with cowboys, where the Op has been sent to break up an illegal immigration operation. The Op's adventures with the customary mode of transportation -horses- provides some comic relief. "Dead Yellow Women" takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown, where the mysteries of this immigrant culture prove confusing for the very American detective. I was surprised to see a Hammett detective in these unusual environments, but was entertained to find that there are thugs and grifters everywhere in Hammett's stories. The Op is never really out of sorts. He may not speak the language, but he's always at home in the criminal underworld. "The Gutting of Couffignal", "Fly Paper", "The Scorched Face", and "The Gatewood Caper" are more conventional Hammett, revolving around the debauchery of lowlifes and the dirty laundry of the wealthy. "The Big Knockover", after which the book is named, and "$106,000 Blood Money" are a two-parter about a spectacular caper in which an army of 150 crooks hold up an entire San Francisco city block and its aftermath. "Tulip" is the odd story out. It is the beginning of an unfinished novel that Hammett started late in life. It is unlike any work that Hammett published. The story concerns two older men, both educated and literate, both with criminal pasts. One is a writer who is working on a book. The other consciously rejected the literate lifestyle many years before, but is always anxious to tell his own story. It isn't very good. The style is tortuous and difficult to follow, the opposite of Hammett's typical lean, direct prose. "Tulip" appears to be an almost ridiculously overt allegory of the author's inner struggles with the value of words versus actions and the meaning of telling stories.

                "The Big Knockover" was edited by Dashiell Hammett's longtime companion, the playwright Lillian Hellman, who wrote the introduction to the book in 1965, 5 years after Hammett died. She affectionately describes how they met, their relationship, how he died, and provides some insight into Hammett's personality from someone who knew him well. It's worth reading. "The Big Knockover" is a solid collection of Hammett stories featuring the wry, indomitable Continental Op. Dashiell Hammett was one of the 20th century's best short story writers, and, apart from "Tulip", which is a curiosity, this is classic Hammett and well worth reading whether you are new to Hammett or already a fan.

                5 out of 5 stars A great writer flexes his muscles.......2001-12-02

                There are some great stories here. Let's discuss some of them in a minute. First, however . . .

                During most of the 1920s and early 1930s, Dashiell Hammett was a compulsive writer and storyteller, possibly due to a personal need to make sense of his world and experiences. Later, he lost that compulsion. Following a brief prison term in the early 1950s (for his refusal to take part in the McCarthy-era witchhunts), he began to rediscover that earlier compulsion. Hence, the fragment of "Tulip," which he apparently intended as an semi-autobiographical novel. One wishes he could have lived long enough to complete more of it, at least.

                Now to the meat of this short-story collection from his earlier days.

                Hammett's most enduring character, the anonymous first-person narrating Continental Op, is the protagonist throughout. The stories vary widely, from the old-west (but not that old at the time of its writing) atmosphere of "Corkscrew" -- which would later serve as theme material for the novel "Red Harvest" -- to the comedy of "The Gatewood Caper"; there's the sinister undertones, interspersed with more comedic touches and a superb punchline at the end, of "Dead Yellow Women" as well as the total 'shaggy dog story' feel of "The Gutting of Couffignal" (in which everything apparently is intended to lead up to yet another punchline).

                And then there's the title story itself, "The Big Knockover," perhaps the pre-eminent 'caper story' of all time: a carefully planned and executed bank robbery which falls awry in a trail of double-cross and deduction, yet which leaves its protagonist at the end to wryly remark (perhaps echoing Hammett's sentiments?): "What a life!"

                Note: Subsequent editions of this collection sometimes include "$106,000 Blood Money," which Hammett ill-advisedly wrote as a sequel to "The Big Knockover." Good as this second tale may be, I believe it could have been written just as easily -- and to better effect -- as an independent story. (There is some evidence that Hammett at one point thought of combining the two as a novel.) I much prefer to leave "Knockover" on its own and let it end there, without the more-than-slightly unsatisfactory resolution of "$106,000 Blood Money."

                Each story in this collection shines on its own and reveals facets of Hammett's innate genius.

                Oh, yeah: There's also a reminiscince by playwright Lillian Hellman, which may or may not have any bearing upon the actual Dashiell Hammett. Decide for yourself.

                4 out of 5 stars Novellas from a Private Detective.......2001-08-14

                These stories were written in the 1920s. If you liked his short stories and novels, you will want to read this book. "Corkscrew" is a short version of "Red Harvest" - get one gang to attack another in order to eliminate both and benefit a third group. "Dead Yellow Women" is about a scheme to provide cover for smuggling. Some things never change! "Tulip" was written in the 1950s, is partly autobiographical, and different from the other stories; not as good, in my opinion. The monetary figures from 80 years ago are way out of date!

                Some of these stories appear to be similar to the turmoil in early 16th Century Italy. Could a Cesare Borgia have planned the "The Big Knockover"? In "$106,000 Blood Money" the Continental Op arranges the death of a traitorous detective, and then the bounty hunter who would claim this reward (leading to a nice bonus later?).

                Why have detective stories gone out of fashion after the 1950s? Could a form of censorship be responsible for this (to hide the actions of these secret agents of the rich and powerful)? Are the "James Bond" stories an updated version of the private detective stories? Or have none-fiction writings become more popular since then ("The Invisible Government")?
                The Big Knockover Selected Stories & Short Novels
                Average customer rating: Not rated
                  The Big Knockover Selected Stories & Short Novels

                  Manufacturer: Random House
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Hardcover
                  ASIN: B000GQ6NYK
                  THE BIG KNOCKOVER- SELECTED STORIES AND SHORT NOVELS OF DASHIELL HAMMETT
                  Average customer rating: Not rated
                    THE BIG KNOCKOVER- SELECTED STORIES AND SHORT NOVELS OF DASHIELL HAMMETT

                    Manufacturer: Random House
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Hardcover
                    ASIN: B000H3V2U2
                    The Big Knockover-Selected Stories and Short Novels
                    Average customer rating: Not rated
                      The Big Knockover-Selected Stories and Short Novels
                      Dashiell (introduction by Lillian Hellman) Hammett
                      Manufacturer: Rand Hse
                      ProductGroup: Book
                      Binding: Hardcover
                      ASIN: B000GW0B1A
                      The Big Knockover : Selected Stories and Short Novels of Dashiell Hammett
                      Average customer rating: Not rated
                        The Big Knockover : Selected Stories and Short Novels of Dashiell Hammett
                        Dashiell; Hellman, Lillian (editor) Hammett
                        Manufacturer: Random House
                        ProductGroup: Book
                        Binding: Hardcover
                        ASIN: B000VVH72M

                        Books:

                        1. Odes to Common Things, Bilingual Edition
                        2. Once in Every Life
                        3. Options Trading: The Hidden Reality ("Options: Perception and Deception" & "Coulda Woulda Shoulda" revised & expanded, Printed in Color)
                        4. Pandora's Curse (Philip Mercer)
                        5. People of the Mist (The First North Americans series, Book 9)
                        6. Priestess Of Avalon
                        7. Rage of Angels
                        8. Recessional
                        9. Revenge Of The Middle-aged Woman
                        10. Rose Madder

                        Books Index

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