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hammett_deskBill has done some work to restore the interior of the bedroom/living room to the sort of appearance it might have had in Hammett’s time. Left is a photo of a desk he’s set up near the wall-bed. In the photo of the desk, note the book with the alarm clock on top. That book is Drake’s Celebrated Criminal Cases of America which Bill said he had a hell of a time finding. Why bother? Check out this passage from The Maltese Falcon where Spade is woken after Archer is found murdered:

Cold steamy air blew in through two open windows, bringing with it half a dozen times a minute the Alcatraz foghorn’s dull moaning. A tinny alarm-clock, insecurely mounted on a corner of Drake’s Celebrated Criminal Cases of America—face down on the table—held its hands at five minutes past two.

hammett_jo-with-coggins

Finally, here’s the picture I’m most pleased to have captureda shot of me with Jo Hammett not three feet from where The Maltese Falcon was written!

Mark Coggins is the Shamus and Barry-nominated author of The Immortal Game and Vulture Capital. He lives in San Francisco, and his latest novel is The Big Wake-up.

This article originally appeared in Mystery Scene Issue #89.