RAOUL WHITFIELD – Laughing Gas.  Steeger Books. paperback, 2021. Originally serialized in Black Mask,  February 1929 to October 1929.  Revised and reprinted in book form as Five, by Temple Field.

   In his introduction to the Steeger reprint, James Reasoner uses the term “word savagery” which was coined by Lester Dent to describe the quality Black Mask brought out in writers, and that certainly fits Raoul Whitfield though I prefer the Raymond Chandler’s term ‘the poetry of violence.” Anyway you put it, Raoul Whitfield was a master of the form, the third spoke of the wheel that included Hammett and Chandler as the best Black Mask has to offer.

   Laughing Gas was Whitfield’s first attempt at a novel length work, written as a series of tightly connected short stories and intended to be published as a fix-up novel. It ended up replaced by another Whitfield serial, Green Ice, that would become Whitfield’s first novel (and wisely, it is a better book) while Laughing Gas was rewritten and published as Five, under the by-line Temple Field. This trade paperback edition from Steeger Books Black Mask collection is the works first appearance in its original form since its publication in the 1929 pages of Black Mask.

   The book covers nine stories. Gary Greer, the two-fisted protagonist, sets out to avenge the murder of his Prosecutor father Stanford by gangsters who laughed while he died at their brutal hands. Greer, a pilot in charge of the local airport, sets out for revenge, and neither the law nor criminals are going to deter him in his singular minded pursuit.

   This is Mike Hammer country, a revenge story much like Whitfield’s similar Green Ice and savage is a fair description of what happens as Greer tracks down the five men who killed his father.

   Whitfield wrote as much or more aviation fiction as crime novels including several juvenile aviation novels. This one mixes the two genres, flying and hardboiled action and does so in a convincing tough guy voice that compels the narrative along like an express train.

   It is a far pulpier work than his best hardboiled novel, Death in a Bowl, a work that comes close to rivaling Hammett’s Maltese Falcon, but it reads surprisingly modern in style, another Mask attribute. The dark salon cars speeding down roads, vintage planes, and Tommy guns may be dated, but the writing is as contemporary as anything you’ll read today.

   
   In addition to revenge intrigue and murder there is a well handled romance that leads you to wonder how Hollywood missed this one. Of course they would have had to tone it down a bit because Greer is a fairly grim avenger adopting multiple identities, names, and faces as he takes his revenge on hoods with colorful names like Frenchy Lamotte, Doll Jacobs, Sal the Dude, and “Fifty Mile” Liseman.

   Whitfield just misses the quality that set Hammett and Chandler apart from the pack, and it is hard to define exactly what it is. It may be because he never quite finds that single voice protagonist (though Death in a Bowl comes close and Jo Gar is a fine creation) or spread himself too thin with his other pulp work. I can’t say exactly. I know at his best he writes as well as either Hammett or Chandler with that same word savagery Reasoner mentions, but he also writes with just the slightest bit less conviction and dedication.

   Granted there is a fairly contrived twist at the end that allows for a happy ending, but it’s the pulps and the kind of thing common in movies at the time, and I can’t bring myself to complain much. After all that an unconvincing path to a happy ending seems a small price to pay. You wouldn’t want Whitfield’s protagonist taking revenge on you because you messed with his happy ending, believe me.

   Just let him have it and lump it.

DASHIELL HAMMETT “$106,000 Blood Money.” First published in Black Mask, May 1927. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   Sequel to “The Big Knockover.” The brother of a murdered gunman attempts to collect the reward money for bringing in Papadopolos. These two stories together vividly describe the underworld and its inhabitants, the temptation of crime, and its viciousness. (4)

DASHIELL HAMMETT “The Big Knockover.” First published in The Black Mask, February 1927. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   Hoods from all over the country are imported into San Francisco to pull off a multimillion dollar double bank robbery, As the Continental Op investigates, most of the gunmen are found murdered, victims of a vicious double-cross. Papadopoulos, the headman, fools the OP and escapes. (4)

DASHIELL HAMMETT “Corkscrew.” First published in The Black Mask, September 1925. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).

   A new deputy sheriff comes to a small town in the Arizona desert, His job is to clear out troublemakers for an irrigation company, but the story means more [than that even] before the anonymous deputy is discovered to be the Continental Op – simply by reflecting attitudes of the real West. (4)

RAOUL WHITFIELD – Border Brand. Steeger Books, softcover, August 2024. Originally serialized in Black Mask magazine, June through November 1928.

   Mac ’twas a fighter pilot in the war to end all wars. Then was a teller in a bank.

   Antonio Flores robbed the bank. And flew away with the cash in a single seater.

   Mac was the teller Flores held up.

   The bank fires Mac. Figure Mac didn’t try hard enough to stop Flores. Figure Mac was maybe in on it.

   So Mac decides to chase after Flores. Across the border to Mexico.

   There he teams up with a federal agent, name of Ben Breed.

   Breed is hell of a pilot too. And a gunner. As well as Mac and Flores. And air battles are the main action here.

   Whitfield does a nice job with the air battle descriptions, keeping me engaged though I’ve myself never been one to seek out air adventure. The other reason to read it is Whitfield’s prose. I think Whitfield maybe has the hardest, most staccato prose in showbiz. And that’s why I keep reading Whitfield and keep seeking him out. He’s a tonic. He’s spare. He’s terse. There’s no wasted word. Concision. Diamond cut. We can still learn a lot from Whitfield about how to say things briskly sans the bullshit.

   I liked it.

CARROLL JOHN DALY “The False Burton Comes.” First published in Black Mask, December 1922. Reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Detective, edited by Herbert Ruhm (Vintage Books, paperback original; 1st printing, January 1977).

   While I could easily be wrong about this, the protagonist in “The False Burton Comes” is, never named. For most of the story’s length he’s been hired by the real Burton Comes to impersonate him for a summer’s season. Why? The real Burton Comes, a socialite of sorts, has gotten into trouble, and he believes that someone wants him dead. He is also sure they mean it.

   And he is, of course, absolutely right. The false Burton Combs finds life could be easy, living a life of wealthy comfort, flirting with women all around (and two in particular), far away from his usual status of thinking himself as being somewhere between a crook and a cop. He’s a rough and tough fellow, a confidence man with lots of crude – but effective – confidence.

   He slips up, though, and when the bad guys come, he is both ready and not ready for them. They catch him looking the wrong way at the time, and this is where the story really comes in. I don’t think he asks the right questions when he should have, even through the beginning of a trial that eventually catches up with him.

   “The False Burton Comes” is considered by many critics to be the first hard-boiled story to appear in the famed pages of Black Mask magazine. I claim no expertise in that regard, but I do have to say that Carroll John Daly is a better writer that some other experts say of him. He’s no Hammett or Raymond Chandler, of course. No one is. But the story moves along like a railroad train barely under control, and with a language and dialogue that’s, yes, hard-boiled, too. Even if the ending might be a little soppy, all in all, it’s a fine piece of work.

   PulpFest 2024 got underway early on Wednesday evening, July 31, when the convention’s chairperson, Jack Cullers, opened the dealers’ room at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh — Cranberry for vendors to set up for the convention. Many PulpFest dealers took advantage of this early setup to load in their wares and socialize with friends whom they see but once, twice, or thrice each year.

   According to PulpFest’s marketing and programming director, Mike Chomko, the DoubleTree staff went above and beyond to have the hotel’s exhibition hall ready and waiting for the convention’s dealers. He recommends that all PulpFest vendors take advantage of the convention’s early set-up hours to prepare their exhibits for the convention’s official opening the next day.

   PulpFest 2024 officially opened on Thursday morning, August 1, with the arrival of more dealers for unloading and setup. Early-bird shopping began around 9 a.m. and continued until 4:45 p.m. Although there were no feeding frenzies noted on opening day, most dealers reported brisk sales at the convention.

   Dealers with substantial pulp offerings included Adventure House, Ray Walsh’s Archives Book Shop, Steve Erickson’s Books from the Crypt, Doug Ellis & Deb Fulton, Heartwood Books & Art, Paul Herman, Mark Hickman, John McMahan, Peter Macuga, Phil Nelson, Steranko, Sheila Vanderbeek, and Todd & Ross Warren. You could also find original artwork offered by Doug Ellis & Deb Fulton, George Hagenauer, Craig Poole, and others.

   In addition to pulps and original artwork, you could find digests, vintage paperbacks, men’s adventure and true crime magazines, first-edition hardcovers, genre fiction, series books, Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, and pulp-related comic books, and more.

   Additionally, one could find pulp reprints and contemporary creations including artwork, new fiction, and fanzines produced by Age of Aces, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Flinch! Books, Doug Klauba, Craig McDonald, Meteor House, Charles F. Millhouse, Brian K. Morris, Will Murray, Stark House, Steeger Books, Mark Wheatley, and others.

   With more than 80 dealers registered for PulpFest 2024, the dealers’ room was a sell-out. One dealer who came on board late had to set up outside the dealers’ room, near the back entrance to the hotel.

   Henry G. Franke III — the co-host of ERBFest 2024 (with PulpFest) — also set up outside the dealers’ room. His table was near the main entrance to the dealers’ room where he provided information about Edgar Rice Burroughs, ERBFest, and the 2024 Dum-Dum banquet.

   The fourth annual PulpFest Pizza Party followed the closure of the dealers’ room at 5 p.m. Almost 70 pizzas were baked for the convention’s members, thanks to the generosity of PulpFest’s dealers. In fact, so many pizzas were made that the hotel ran out of some ingredients. Since it was started in 2021, the annual pizza gathering has become a very popular fixture at PulpFest. The convention’s advertising director, Bill Lampkin, promises more “Pizza at PulpFest” gatherings in the years to come.

   Following opening remarks by chairman Cullers, the convention’s admirable programming line-up began with a look at the early years of Black Mask, presented by Blood ’n Thunder editor and publisher Ed Hulse and his dear friend and pulp authority, Walker Martin.

   Afterward, Will Murray and John Wooley — who appeared in no less than three presentations at this year’s PulpFest — discussed the gumshoes and writers for Spicy Detective Stories. Later in the night, pulp art expert David Saunders explored the Spicy artists, including an in-depth look at Adolphe Barreaux, creator of “Sally the Sleuth.”

   Tim King — a former investigator for the Department of Defense and US Intelligence Services — offered a very entertaining and well-received look at spy heroes in the pulp magazines, creating a “Mission: Impossible” task force made up of the great spy heroes.

   Closing out the night were Bernice Jones & Cathy Mann Wilbanks discussing “The Women of Edgar Rice Burroughs,” one of several talks on ERB and his creations at this year’s PulpFest/ERBFest. Unfortunately, a showing of The Land That Time Forgot had to be canceled due to technical difficulties. The film, directed by Kevin Connor, turned fifty this year.

   Despite a long day of buying and selling and an evening packed with programming, many conventioneers gathered in the hotel lounge to talk and reminisce about their favorite authors, cover artists, and pulp characters long into the night.

   There was more buying and selling on Friday, August 2. Competing for attendees’ attention were three afternoon presentations. Starting shortly after noon, filmmaker Ron Hill offered one of two special showings of his documentary on pulp fandom, We Are Doc Savage. Questions and comments followed the showing. Afterward came the 2024 “Flinch! Fest,” hosted by John C. Bruening & Jim Beard of Flinch! Books. Joining them was Flinch writer Brian Morris.

   Closing out the afternoon programming was “The Universe According to Edgar Rice Burroughs,” a panel led by Christopher Paul Carey — director of publishing for Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. — and Cathy Wilbanks, the organization’s Vice President of Operations. Joining them was Joe Ferrante from Pocket Universe Productions — creators of John Carter of Mars: The Audio Series — and Doug Simms of Heroes and Games.

   After the dinner break came more evening programming, beginning with a look at the spicy influence on the men’s adventure magazines, presented by Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle — co-editors of “The Men’s Adventure Library.” Next came a look at the Popular Publications years of Black Mask, presented by John Gunnison, John McMahan, and John Wooley.

   Afterward, writer and illustrator Mark Schultz and PulpFest programming director Mike Chomko teamed up for a look at dinosaurs in the pulps. This in-depth presentation on the topic ran quite a bit over its allotted time as the two discussed paleontology and the pulps. It was part of the 2024 salute to the centennial of the first book publication of The Land That Time Forgot.

   Tom Krabacher and Kurt Shoemaker came next with a look at America’s Secret Service Ace — Operator #5 — while Morgan Holmes, a leading expert on sword and sorcery and the work of Robert E. Howard, finished up the evening’s programming with a discussion of Culture Publications’ Spicy- Adventure Stories. The “Spicy” pulps turned 90 years old in 2024.

   Rather than show the evening’s planned film — The People That Time Forgot — the convention screened the previously canceled The Land That Time Forgot. The audience was asked to turn off the lights and make sure the doors were locked if they decided to watch the movie’s sequel during the wee hours of Sunday morning.

   On Saturday, August 3, the dealers’ room opened again at 9 a.m. and brisk business continued. All told, 436 people passed through the entrance to the PulpFest 2024 dealers’ room where they were tempted by more than 150 tables filled with thousands of pulp magazines, digests, vintage paperbacks, original art, and much more.

   Ron Hill started off the afternoon programming with another showing of We Are Doc Savage, a documentary on fandom. Afterward, Win Scott Eckert, Sean Lee Levin, & Paul Spiteri, with Keith Howell, celebrated Farmercon XIX with a discussion about the latest offerings from Meteor House.

   Closing out the afternoon programming, author and journalist Craig McDonald interviewed artist Douglas C. Klauba, whose work covers the interests of the three conventions held annually at the DoubleTree in Mars, PA: Burroughs, Farmer, & pulp.

   This was the third time that PulpFest had hosted both Farmercon — which has been coming to PulpFest almost annually since 2011 — and ERBFest — a “convention within a convention” that began at PulpFest in 2021. They’ll both be returning next year, along with a third convention — Doc Con, a gathering of the fans of “The Man of Bronze.” It has been nearly a decade since the last Doc Con.

   After the close of the dealers’ room on Saturday, The Burroughs Bibliophiles and fans of the author’s work gathered at the nearby Bravo! Italian Kitchen for the 2024 Dum-Dum Banquet. Named for the special gatherings of the great apes as described in Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes, the banquet was hosted by Henry G. Franke III and Jason Aiken, a local member of The Bibliophiles. Attended by nearly fifty people, the banquet featured door prizes, a free program book with an autographs page, and a driving-tour map of Mars, Pennsylvania, and its vicinity.

   Speaking at the event was author and illustrator Mark Schultz — who was also presented with the 2024 Golden Lion Award — and Mike Conran, Vice Chairman of the Bibliophiles Board of Directors. Frankie Frazetta also provided a video recorded at the Frazetta Art Museum in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, made especially for the banquet. Jim Goodwin was presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award at the banquet.

   After Saturday’s dinner break came more evening programming, beginning with a look at PulpFest 2025, presented by committee members Cullers and Chomko. Afterward, the 2024 Munsey Award was presented to researcher and editor, Gene Christie. The Munsey Award recognizes an individual or organization that has bettered the pulp community — be it through disseminating knowledge about the pulps or through publishing or other efforts to preserve and foster interest in the pulp magazines we all love and enjoy.

   Finishing off this year’s programming at PulpFest was an interview with Peter Wolson, the son of hardboiled detective writer Morton Wolson (who wrote as Peter Paige). The tireless John Wooley conducted the interview.

   Closing out the evening was the convention’s Saturday night auction. It featured over 300 lots of material including nearly 250 lots of science fiction books, magazines, and reference materials from the estate of Charles Danowski, a former school superintendent with a love for the genre. Perhaps the highlight of the auction was a copy of the October 1933 issue of Weird Tales, featuring the iconic “Bat Woman” cover of Margaret Brundage. It sold to a silent bidder for $2000.

   The remainder of the lots consisted of several groupings of The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Phantom Detective, about ten issues of Weird Tales — mostly from the 1930s — Edgar Rice Burroughs first editions, and a half-dozen or so number one pulps, including South Sea Stories, The Skipper, and Jungle Stories.

   Although the dealers’ room opened a final time again on Sunday, August 4, buying and selling opportunities were limited as dealers packed up and prepared for the drive home.

   PulpFest 2025 will take place August 7 – 10 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh — Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. The convention will be celebrating “Masters of Blood and Thunder” in 2025. The 150th anniversary of the births of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rafael Sabatini, and Edgar Wallace will happen next year.

   You can learn more by visiting http://www.pulpfest.com. I hope to see you at the convention.

         —

EDITORIAL UPDATE: August 26th. I’ve just added photos sent to me by Bill Lampkin. Thanks, Bill!

H. P. LOVECRAFT – 3 Tales of Horror. Arkham House, hardcover, 1967.

   So I’ve had this really cool edition of Lovecraft from August Derleth’s Arkham House, with ominous illustrations by Lee Brown Coye. Take a look here, using the link below, and you’ll get the general idea: https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_dark_art_of_h.p._lovecraft_illustrator_lee_brown_coye.

   But for whatever reason I’d never read it. Nor any Lovecraft. Now back in my D&D’ing days of yore (Dungeons and Dragons, for the uninitiated), I became somewhat familiar with and frightened by Cthulhu. But that’s where my acquaintance stopped.

Whether because of my general disdain for the horror genre, or due to Lovecraft’s reputation for racism and lack of stylistic panache — or even prosaic competence — I had hitherto avoided reading any. But upon crackling open the spine of this here volume, hither and thither hast my avoidance been vanquished.

   In other words, Lovecraft is freaking awesome! I loved these three stories. They’re great and I devoured them as quick as I could before they could devour me.

      The three stories were:

1. “The Colour Out of Space.” Amazing Stories, September 1927.

   In this one, some weird meteor hits near a farm house, west of Arkham, New England way, near Miskatonic University.

   The material of the ‘meteor’ is of some hitherto unknown quality that appears on no periodic table of this realm.

   The scientists are all excited to test a piece of it. But as they test it, it starts to shrink, then disappear.

   Finally they chip into the thing itself, deeply, releasing some amorphous blue globule. Nothing to see here. All is well. It continues to shrink, then disappear, til near forgotten.

   Then the farmer and his family start to grow gorgeous but inedible crops , and they begin to act crazier and crazier, and finally disappear one by one.

   There is something corrupt in the soil, in their wellspring. And it’s spreading.

2. “The Dunwich Horror.” Weird Tales, April 1929.

   Young Wilbur Whately is born in Dunwich, child of weak-minded albino mother, and fathered by some monstrosity. Gramps is some sort of sorcerer called Old Whately.

   Wilbur grows at an inhuman rate, able to walk around and read in multiple languages by the time he was a toddler, big as a 4 year old by 2, big as an 8 year old by 4. And so on.

   Wilbur and gramps are working to conjure an ancient spirit to retake the earth and vanquish humanity. Will they get away with it? Tune in next time…..same bat time…..same bat channel.

3. “The Thing on the Doorstep.” Weird Tales, January 1937.

   “It is true that I have sent six bullets through the head of my best friend, and yet I hope to show by this statement that I am not his murderer. At first I shall be called a madman — madder than the man I shot in his cell at the Arkham Sanitarium.”

   And so it begins….

   Our narrator has murdered a person who appears to be Edward Derby, his lifelong friend.   

   But the story tells the tale of Ephraim Waite — a mysterious man of whispered wizardry. And his Winona Ryder looking daughter Asenath who steals the heart of our beloved Mr. Derby, and they wed.

   Mr. Derby’s soul seems increasingly to be wrenched from his body, and transported into the body of his strange bride, and vice versa. And there is a struggle for control of the body between each soul. A battle for the corpus of the man, Edward.

   If Edward is killed whilst his body is possessed by Asenatha Waite—who then is the victim?

         ____

   Anyway, I really dug these stories. Yeah, the prose is antiquated. But the style fits the mysterious boggy settings. And adds to them, really.

   Another thing I liked about the stories is they are narrated in each case by a sceptic — a non-believer in magical spirits and alien powers. It is only by the ‘objective’ appearance of inexplicable happenings that the inherent skepticism is overcome. And you find yourself being slowly edged into belief, an objective observer of ineffable horrors.

BRANT HOUSE – Servants of the Skull. Secret Agent X #2. Corinth CR126, paperback, 1966. Cover art by Robert Bonfil. First appeared in Secret Agent X, November 1934. [Brant House was a house name used by several writers; in this case the author was Emile C. Tepperman.]

   The Skull’s plan is to kidnap ten heavily insured businessmen, then force [their] life insurance companies to pay for their release, rather than have them viciously murdered, X manages to take the place of a notorious safe-cracker and enter he Skull’s secret underground hideaway, but the capture of Betty Dale forces him to reveal [himself. He escapes, then returns as a kidnap victim before the Skull’s identities are revealed in turn.]

   Tremendously exciting, with the plot moving forward every minute. There are flaws, of course, if you must look for them. The Skull’s “servants” are decidedly of a poor caliber; no wonder he keeps them locked up almost as prisoners. At one time, Secret Agent X, in distress, asks the Skull if all the secret panels and the maze of passages are necessary. [Here’s what I’m thinking.] Not for a sane man, but how can a man with the Skull’s ambitions be sane?

Rating: ***

DASHIELL HAMMETT – The Dain Curse. Alfred A. Knopf, hardcover, 1929. Reprinted many times since, in both hardcover and paperback.  TV mini-series: CBS 1978 (starring James Coburn as “Hamilton Nash”).

   The Dain Curse is a bad novel cobbled together from four interlinked stories from Black Mask. I disliked the novel when I first read it many years ago. Then after a recent debate on the Rara-Avis listserve about its merits, I resolved to read it again. This time reading the four stories as originally published to see if that improved my experience. It didn’t.

   Taking the four stories separately, however, there are some ebbs and flows of merit. It is Hammett after all. And bad Hammett is still better than a lot of stuff out there. I just wouldn’t recommend a re-read is all.

Story 1: “Black Lives.”  (Black Mask, November 1928)

   The Continental OP is hired by an insurance company to investigate stolen diamonds. Edgar Leggett had been loaned the diamonds by a local jeweler for the purpose of conducting some experiments adding hue to the stones. The OP begins to suspect that there’s something fishy about the so called theft.

   And bad things happen to Leggett and his family. Leggett’s daughter, Gabrielle, is informed by her step mother that all of the badness can be traced to a family curse (her mother’s maiden name was Dain): The Dain Curse: “[Y]ou’re cursed with the same rotten soul and black blood…all the Dains have had, you’re cursed with your mother’s death on your hands before you were five; you’re cursed with the warped mind and the need for drugs that I’ve given you in pay for your silly love since you were a baby. Your life will be black as…mine [was] black; the lives of those you touch will be black”.

   In the end the OP solves the crime of the missing diamonds, the insurance company is happy. But the Dain Curse remains!!

Story 2: “The Hollow Temple.” (Black Mask, December 1928)

   By far the best of the four stories, in this one Gabrielle Leggett joins a cult and goes missing. The OP is hired by her fiancé to recover the girl — which he does — but not before crushing the hollow temple forged by a charismatic charlatan out of morphine, laughing gas, sight gags, and mullah.

Story 3: “Black Honeymoon.”  (Black Mask, January 1929)

   Once Gabrielle Leggett is saved from the hollow temple, her fiancé elopes with her. The honeymoon does not go well, and the OP is called in to pick up the shards.

Story 4: “Black Riddle.” (Black Mask, February 1929)

   The so called riddle is this: If you don’t believe in Dain curses, why are all these bad things happening to Gabrielle Leggett? In this horribly told story, the OP mansplains for all to hear the solution to the three prior stories.

   He doesn’t show us. He tells us. Giving us a bunch of undisclosed information based on unsupported guesswork that just so happens to be completely right and confessed to by the criminal mastermind. It’s absolutely the worst kind of ending of a mystery. No fair play. No show don’t tell. Just a boring dispositive lecture telling you the answer in a terribly unsatisfying way.

         —

   So yeah. Hated it. Almost couldn’t finish it. Upon starting the book I immediately remembered who the ‘criminal mastermind’ was. This made my experience of the book infinitely worse as I could witness the lack of fair play in real time as the story unfolded.

   If Fast One is ODTAA (thanks, Roger) – -for whatever reason Hammett eschews ODTAA, insisting on a criminal mastermind to tie all of the miscreants and their collective miscreantry together. It’s an unnecessary conceit that spoils the whole thing. Ironically the curse of the Dain Curse is that there’s no Dain Curse.

   If Hammett had simply allowed the curse to linger all might have been okay. But Hammett takes such pains to dispel the curse that he destroys whatever mystery is left. Rather than solving the case, the whole thing crumbles in a monologue that neatly ties up everything in a bow. But what results is neither trick nor treat. Turns out the Dain Curse is the cursed book itself.