FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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After 35 Years, Influential Investigation of Dashiell Hammett's Novels Finally Becomes a Book

Previously in rare magazine, "Hammett's Moral Vision" by George J. "Rhino" Thompson influenced most analyses of "The Maltese Falcon," "The Thin Man," and Other Hammett novels.

San Francisco, Calif. – Feb 6, 2007 – Even though it is the single most influential full-length investigation of Dashiell Hammett's novels, Hammett's Moral Vision by George J. "Rhino" Thompson has never been available in book form—until now.

Dashiell Hammett was the best-selling creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon,  and The Thin Man.  Hammett's Mortal Vision was written in 1972, and serialized in seven issues of The Armchair Detective Magazine.  It has affected most subsequent analyses of Hammett's work, even though most people could read Hammett's Moral Vision by digging up all seven tough-to-find issues of The Armchair Detective, and only for collector's prices of more than $100 per set.

English literary critic Julian Symons calls "Rhino" Thompson "one of the most intelligent critics of Hammett's work."

Edgar Award-winner and Hammett biographer William F. Nolan writes that Hammett's Moral Vision is "incredibly well done, beautifully researched, and displaying tremendous insight into what made Hammett tick as a writer. ... [Thompson's] vision is timeless."

Now Hammett's Moral Vision is available as an affordable book.  It updates and expands George J. "Rhino" Thompson's insights into Red harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man, and adds a new introduction by Edgar Award-winning author William F. Nolan.

About George J. "Rhino" Thompson

Writing a doctoral dissertation on Dashiell Hammett led George J. "Rhino" Thompson, Ph.D., to change his career from university English teacher to police officer.  He became the author of the bestseller Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion, and founder of the Verbal Judo Institute.  "Rhino" has been featured on network news on NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox, and on the TV programs 48 Hours, Inside Edition, and In the Line of Duty. He lives in upstate New York.  His website is www.verbaljudo.com.

About Dashiell Hammett

Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was one of the world's most popular and influential writers.  Famous as the best-selling author of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man, Hammett was also a Pinkerton's detective, an advertising man, a soldier in the U.S. Army during both World Wars, an Academy  Award-nominated screenwriter, and a political activist.

Hammett's Moral Vision, by George J. "Rhino" Thompson

Clothbound hardcover; 256 pages; 1 illustration, 12 photographs

$24.95 U.S./$31.95 Canada; ISBN 978-0-97-258983-3

Publisher: Vince Emery Productions, www.emerybooks.com

To purchase copies of the books for resale, please fax IPG at (312) 337-5985, call IPG at (800) 888-4741, or contact Ingram, Baker & Taylor, or other distributors.