'Not since Hammett and Chandler has anyone written quite as well as Joe Gores' Ross Thomas From Chinatown's dark alleys to the fog-shrouded Golden Gate, crooked politicians ran San Francisco. To Hammet, retired Pinkerton detective and struggling writer, it was all just grist to his fictional mill. Until the night his pal walked into a baseball bat. Then Hammett hung up his typewriter, put on his gumshoes and went out into the brawling, swaggering city to find the brutal murderer.