Across the literary pages | 14 March 2011

Strand magazine is to publish a recently discovered short story by Dashiell Hammett, ‘So I Shot Him’.

‘He gave us both Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles — so for a generation of readers, Dashiell Hammett more or less defined both “hard-boiled” and “suave.” Not bad, that.

Now, from the long-deceased author of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, comes a never-before-published short story: “So I Shot Him.” It’s suspenseful, full of secrets no one’s telling, and — according to Andrew Gulli, editor of the mystery magazine that’s publishing the story — somewhat more than what you might think of as vintage Hammett.

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“Vintage in that you have the great vivid characterization that Dashiell Hammett is so famous for,” Gulli tells NPR’s Robert Siegel.