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Author: Bob Byrne

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Going The Distance with the Czar of Noir

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Going The Distance with the Czar of Noir

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

Eddie Muller is known as the Czar of Noir. He founded the Film Noir Foundation and he hosts Noir Alley, on Turner Classic Movies. He’s written a couple respected non-fiction books about Noir and cinema.

In 2002, Austin hosted the big mystery convention, Bouchercon. I was living there and stopped in for a day. I met Eddie, who hadn’t yet started appearing on TCM opposite Robert Osborne. He was there with his just published first novel, The Distance.

Eddie’s father was a popular, long-time sportswriter for the San Francisco Examiner for over 40 years. He was known as ‘Mr Boxer.’ Eddie would also go to work in the newspaper business himself.

That background is all relevant, because for the book, Eddie drew heavily on his dad’s career, and his own life around the newspaper industry. The Distance features Mister Boxing, Billy Nichols, a local sports reporter who is a legitimate celebrity, working for William Randolph Heart’s The Examiner. Set around the post-WW II San Francisco boxing scene, the workings of the newspaper and the reporter’s life add great depth to the book.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Bleak Noir – Jim Thompson

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Bleak Noir – Jim Thompson

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

I have a shelf full of Jim Thompson books. For A (Black) Gat in the Hand, I decided to read a couple I had not got to yet. So, Wild Town was followed by A Swell Looking Babe. Then, Nothing More than Murder. And I mixed in The Grifters (which I have read, as well as seen the movie) into my audiobook listening.

While I’ve got a post dedicated to maybe his most unusual book – The Transgressors – in the works, I wanted to bring up one common aspect in his writing.

It can be difficult to sympathize with the main character, as they’re often not very nice people. That’s a post in itself. And those characters are often saturated with bleakness. I rarely read two Thompsons in a row. I need a palette cleanse after one. He’s good. But he’s about as joyful as Full Metal Jacket.

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A (Black Gat in the Hand: Ballard’s Bill Lennox in Hollywood (my intro)

A (Black Gat in the Hand: Ballard’s Bill Lennox in Hollywood (my intro)

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

Pulp Fest took place in Pittsburgh first week of the month. It’s a really cool event, and the Hilton Doubletree is a nice site. Steeger Books rolls out its Summer line at this event. Last week I shared the latest intro I wrote for Hammett’s Continental Op series; which is up to four volumes. This week, it’s my other new Steeger release. I’m a big fan of W.T. Ballard’s Hollywood studios troubleshooter, Bill Lennox. He’s a neat take on the hardboiled PI. 

Lennox was featured in short stories and novels, and I wrote the intro for Volume 2.

Willis T. Ballard’s middle name is ‘Todhunter.’ While that is certainly a rare one, it is also the middle name of his cousin, Rex Stout, who created the hugely popular Nero Wolfe. Apparently Todhunter is a good name if you want to become a successful writer.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Hammett & The Continental Op – Volume 4 (My intro)

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Hammett & The Continental Op – Volume 4 (My intro)

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

Pulp Fest takes place in Pittsburgh first week of the month. It’s a really cool event, and the Hilton Doubletree is a nice site. Steeger Books rolls out its summer line at this event. And for the fourth year in a row, there was a new Continental Op collection, with a brand new intro by yours truly. Getting to write about Dashiell Hammett remains a definite thrill. This volume contains the first great hardboiled novel, Red Harvest. 

Unable to make a living writing for Phil Cody, Dashiell Hammett quit Black Mask – and the Pulps, entirely – after “The Creeping Siamese,” which appeared in the March 1926 issue. It was also the last story in Volume Three of this series.

Hammett had written some top-tier stories, such as “The Girl with the Silver Eyes,” and “The House in Turk Street.” But he was not yet THE Dashiell Hammett when he took a full-time job as advertising manager for Albert S. Samuels Co. Jewelers, in March of 1926. Hammett worked, drank, got a second apartment as a writing studio, and romanced the office secretary; all while his second child was being born. The stress was too much for his war-damaged lungs and he collapsed, coughing up blood. Unable to work full-time, he did free-lance advertising writing. He simply did not want to write fiction again. Enter Joseph ‘Cap’ Shaw.

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You Need Some Strong Medicine: The New Holmes on the Range

You Need Some Strong Medicine: The New Holmes on the Range

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This updated essay, a comprehensive chronology, and a Q&A which Steve Hockensmith kindly did with me, represent the deepest dive anyone has done on the terrific Holmes on the Range series. It incorporates all the novels and short stories featuring Otto and Gustav Amlingmeyer, as well as the two novels and one short story for the spin-off Double-A Western Detective Agency.

I just read the new novel, Strong Medicine, and it was great Big Red and Old Red fun, as always. Throughout the year I listen to various Holmes on the Range audiobooks and they keep entertaining.

If I still haven’t convinced you to try that first novel, Holmes on the Range (or the short story collection, Dear Mr. Holmes), give me the benefit of the doubt. Steve’s a really good writer, and these are fun Western mysteries, with a Holmes underlay. Don’t be a saphead. 🙂

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What I’ve Been Watching – July 2026

What I’ve Been Watching – July 2026

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I haven’t shared what I’ve been watching, since February. Nothing earth shattering, but I’m sure you occasionally wonder. So…

Back in January, I canceled all my subs except for Prime (keeping BritBox within that one). RokuTV and Tubi are regulars for me now, along with Prime, and I’ve got my DVDs (VHS hasn’t come back into play yet.

I don’t watch much sports anymore, and no brand new shows – I have an antenna, but no recording capability. I’m pretty content with the new normal. I’ve always been a re-watcher, and that helps fill the gap. But I’m still adding in some other stuff. Frankly, I’m happy without all the subs.

HIGH TIDE

This was a total surprise to me when I discovered it a couple weeks ago. I was in high school when Jessie’s Girl exploded. And of course, Rick Springfield was Dr. Noah Drake. I didn’t even watch General Hospital, and I knew that.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Will Murray on Lester Dent’s Lost Detective

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Will Murray on Lester Dent’s Lost Detective

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I’m always happy when my Pulp buddy Will Murray writes an A (Black) Gat in the  Hand essay. He tackles cool stuff that never even occurs to me. And often which I knew nothing about. Will is the leading authority on Lester Dent’s Travis McGee predecessor (and you KNOW I love me some John D. MacDonald), Oscar Sail. But I had never even heard of the the maritime PI who follwed Sail: Cyrus Peace. So I’m thrilled to give you Will’s essay on another Dent PI: who, unfortunately, never made it to print. Read on, MacDuff. 

An interesting sub-genre of modern detective fiction is the private detective who lives on and operates from a boat anchored somewhere along the Florida coast.

John D. McDonald’s Travis McGee is considered the most successful in this peculiar sub-genre. His houseboat, The Busted Flush, was moored off Fort Lauderdale.

(Editor’s Note – Click here for Black Gate’s John D. MacDonald coverage)

Others include the trio of troubleshooters who operated out of a Miami Beach houseboat in the 1960-62 Warner Bros. television show, Surfside 6––Dave Thorne, Sandy Winfield II, and attorney-turned PI Ken Madison.

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Emergency! – Randolph Mantooth Passes Away at 80

Emergency! – Randolph Mantooth Passes Away at 80

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I am in the midst of my annual re-listen to Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee Navajo Tribal Police mysteries. I have yet to tire of those (I do NOT include his daughter Anne’s continuations. Because they’re terrible and I quit reading them. You should need more qualification than your last name, to continue somebody else’s terrific series).

Anywhoo…I also decided to re-watch season one of Dark Winds, which I had some issues with. But then I saw that Randy DeRoy Mantooth passed away, and I decided to write about him a bit.

Randolph Mantooth was co-lead on Emergency!, which aired 131 episodes from 1972-1979. For kids of the seventies, this and Adam-12, were the foundations of a life-long love of police and medical dramas. They even had a bit of crossover.

First with Tubi, then RokuTV, I started re-watching Emergency! earlier this year. I did the first three seasons and moved on to other shows. Though I just watched the season four kickoff and immediately recognized Hall of Fame running back Larry Csonka.

Emergency! featured Julie London, a popular torch singer from the fifties and sixties, as well as musician Bobby Troup. And man, Robert Fuller had soap opera good looks. They handled the hospital side of the medical drama. But the show was really about paramedics Mantooth and Kevin Tighe.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Front Porch Pulp & Frank Kane

A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Front Porch Pulp & Frank Kane

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“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

So, as I type this, I am 99% moved from my apartment of the past six years, into the small house I bought a couple weeks ago (well, along with the bank…), which I happily call my writer’s bungalow. It has a small loft. I put in my desk (a cafeteria table) and as many bookshelves as I could fit in it. This is truly my happy place.

I started packing up my books in May. I’ve been crazy stressed between house hunting, house closing, and work. And packing. And I have felt oddly bereft, with my books in boxes. Unanchored. For someone who went through a divorce and moved out of his house in 2020 (like that wasn’t a hard enough year by itself!), this was unsettling. I couldn’t look over and see shelves of books. I couldn’t grab one for a Black Gate post.

I have over 2,000 physical books, and I moved all of them with my car, in about 55-60 boxes – yeah, that took a LOT of trips! I’m filling up my  bookcases, gradually. Things like installing a washer and dryer, finding my socket set (I swear, that thing vanished), and an inconveniently timed out-of-town work trip, have taken precedence.

But my new house is slowly filling with my fiction and non-fiction collections. And THAT is helping me feel settled again. But in addition to the loft, there’s another terrific writing aspect to my bungalow. A (Black) Gat in the Hand fans (and long-time FB followers) may remember my former house had a terrific back deck, which led to Back Deck Pulp.

My apartment had a nice little concrete slab, facing a lot of trees, and thus was born the infrequent Back Porch Pulp.

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand – Words of Wisdom from Black Mask‘s Joe Shaw

A (Black) Gat in the Hand – Words of Wisdom from Black Mask‘s Joe Shaw

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BlackMask_May1934EDITED“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

(Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun)

I closed on a house a week ago Thursday and immediately began moving in, which is a long process for me. And I then had to go to Chicago for a work conference, doubling up my stress. So, today, you get an encore from season one of A (Black) Gat in the Hand. As a hardboiled fan, I find this essay from the legendary Black Mask editor, Joe ‘Cap’ Shaw. It offers his insights into writing for the Pulps. And it’s from an issue of Writer’s Digest, not Black Mask. I add some comments throughout. I think it’s a good read. 

The hardboiled school was born in the page of Black Mask Magazine under the editorship of George W. Sutton, with Carroll John Daly’s “Three Gun Terry” (which I wrote about here…) and “Kings of the Open Palm,” and Dashiell Hammett’s “Arson Plus,” appearing in 1923. In 1924, Sutton resigned and circulation editor Phil Cody replaced him.

Cody pushed for more stories featuring Race Williams and the Continental Op, encouraged Erle Stanley Gardner to develop Ed Jenkins (‘The Phantom Crook’), and added Frederick Nebel and Raoul Whitfield to the magazine. Cody was spread too thin managing multiple publications, and he handed the reins to Joseph Shaw, a former bayonet instructor in the Army and an unsuccessful writer with zero editorial experience (I mean, sure, why not?).

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