Call them buttonhole books, the ones you urge passionately on friends, colleagues and passersby. All readers have them -- and so do writers. This summer, NPR.org talks with authors about their ...

Hard-boiled private dick Hamilton Nash is hired to investigate a case of stolen diamonds, which leads him to a lovely and odd young woman named Gabrielle, who believes she has been stricken with the ...

In his New York Times obituary, Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was described as "the dean of the 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction." High praise indeed, yet there is only one way to truly ...

No callers are identified. No conversations are recorded. No phone records are kept. Now speak clearly and when you are finished say: 'Go ahead'.