"Funny thing about books, some of them are a delight and a pleasure. Thus Nathan Ward''s The Lost Detective --yes it''s very well-written, yes the history is carefully done, but it has that glow. So, this you will like." --Alan Furst, author of MIDNIGHT IN EUROPE " The Lost Detective humanizes my grandfather, while at the same time illuminating the context of his life and times. Links between Hammett''s fiction and Pinkertons and his early (pre-Hellman) family life are particularly satisfying." --Julie M. Rivett, co-editor of SELECTED LETTERS OF DASHIELL HAMMETT and THE HUNTER AND OTHER STORIES "As a devoted Hammett aficionado, I''ve read most books about him and published his daughter''s memoir, but learned so much in this captivating examination of the great author''s life that I feel compelled to reread his complete works with far deeper understanding than ever before." --Otto Penzler, Editor, THE BEST AMERICAN NOIR OF THE CENTURY " The Lost Detective is full of stimulating insight into how the novice writer shaped real-life experience into vital fiction.

" -- The Wall Street Journal "Ward''s focus on the origins of Hammett''s writing style and his connecting the events of the author''s background to the fiction are the highlights of this brief, accessible biography . Highly recommended." -- Library Journal "As brisk and conversational as a magazine feature, The Lost Detective invites readers not just to explore Hammett''s early years in more detail and consider how those formative experiences helped shape his writing career, but also . to look at how the Hammett persona was created. And as we Hammett fans know, there are few personas, few writers in 20th-century literature period, more interesting to read about." -- The Washington Post "A gritty portrait of the 20th century''s great pulp poet Dashiell Hammett, who turned his days gumshoeing for the Pinkerton Detective Agency into bawdy and muscular American classics." -- O, the Oprah Magazine "[H]ighly entertaining . captures what it feels like to read Hammett''s early work and, as Ward says, ''watch a sickly ex-detective in his late twenties, with an eighth-grade education, gradually, improbably, teach himself to write.

''" -- The Boston Globe "Nathan Ward shows that Hammett''s innovative style did not, as it may have seemed, spring fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus . With deft investigative work, Ward shows how much of Hammett''s fiction owed to Pinkerton reports . a lively, witty account of how Hammett came to be Hammett--a portrait of the artist, if you will, as a cynical man." -- Chicago Tribune "[A] splendid biography of this keystone figure of American letters. Fittingly, there have been numerous biographies of Hammett . but none have explored as deeply his life before he became a writer. There can be little doubt that Hammett''s work with the Pinkertons was the greatest influence on who he became, both as a person and as an author . Ward wisely chose to focus on Hammett''s formative years.

" --Otto Penzler in THE NATIONAL REVIEW "Nathan Ward''s book shines a detective''s flashlight on Hammett''s early development." -- Buffalo News "Hardboiled crime novel fans will find Ward''s research into what it meant to Hammett to be an actual detective before he wrote about them quite fascinating." -- ShelfAwareness "With its sharp focus and strong hook, The Lost Detective is a fascinating read [that] casts Hammett in a new and intriguing light." -- Herald Scotland " Investigative biographer Nathan Ward brings those offstage influences alive in The Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell Hammett . Ward''s own narrative pace and procedure are not unlike his subject''s--smart, terse and entertaining. The story has been told before but never with such rigor, verve and thoughtful attention to the formative years of the man who provided The Maltese Falcon (1929) and The Thin Man (1933)." -- The Virginian-Pilot "Beguiling . The Lost Detective is a dazzling display of literary detection.

" -- Sydney Morning Herald.