Joe Gores: Hammett (UK 2002)

From the Publisher:
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. A tough, wry, brilliant book in the great tradition of Hammett himself.

Joe Gores: Hammett. Orion Books, ISBN: 0752851829 (December, 2002), Crime Masterworks 26, 237 p., £6.99 (?).