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Shadow Man: A Biography of Lewis Miles Archer

Gabriel Blackwell (Goodreads Author)

4.67 · Rating details · 33 ratings · 10 reviews

According to Dashiell Hammett, a shadow man is "meant to blend in, to disappear by being always there." Hammett knew something about disappearing. Behind the shadows thrown by "Miles Archer," his fictional detective, was a very real detective—his partner in San Francisco, Lewis Miles Archer, a private detective so private that, when he went missing in February of 1929, no ...more

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Paperback, 288 pages

Published November 12th 2012 by Civil Coping Mechanisms (first published October 1st 2012)

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Aug 10, 2012 Peter Tieryas rated it it was amazing

Adding the YouTube Video of the Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrE7AR...

Shadow Man is noir at its best. Gabriel Blackwell’s debut novel isn’t just a murder mystery, but an exploration of metaphysics, identity, and historical ontology. It’s a fast-paced read and after I first finished the book, I watched Maltese Falcon, read the book again, and like any great mystery case, saw so much more with the layers stripped away. I marveled at the attention to detail, the meticulous facts giving us ...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Amber Sparks rated it it was amazing

If you're a fan of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler, or of the film versions of The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon, or The Big Sleep - or even if you're just a fan of the hard-boiled gumshoe genre - you'll hugely enjoy this incredibly witty, incredibly colorful, incredibly complex puzzle box of a novel. Blackwell brings false leads and minor characters to life with a sure and snappy voice and an ear for the language and the tropes of the classic detective that makes this cerebral fare quite ...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Joe Sacksteder added it

The thing that I found most interesting about this book was how it shattered the comfortable "connection" that the reader is traditionally "supposed" to feel with the main character(s). Switching from notes to notes back to the true Shadow Man of the narrator was callous in the best possible way.

I really want to teach a class called "True Lies: Un-truth in Non-fiction," and this would be a text I'd consider. I love when research gets so obsessive that we have to question the narrator's The thing that I found most interesting about this book was how it shattered the comfortable "connection" that the reader is traditionally "supposed" to feel with the main character(s). Switching from notes to notes back to the true Shadow Man of the narrator was callous in the best possible way.

I really want to teach a class called "True Lies: Un-truth in Non-fiction," and this would be a text I'd consider. I love when research gets so obsessive that we have to question the narrator's intentions and the validity of his/her account. It reminded me of Dimitri Anastasopoulos's writing in that regard.

Blackwell is at his best when he's describing verminous characters using massive amounts of hyperbole and sensory crud. There are many examples in the book, but my favorite was that of Sheriff Albert Graves: "He's just like I remember him from the movies, only he talks. Somehow, though, he says less. He's never heard of Fraley, Sampson, O'Mara, Mars, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, the Pope, Jesus Christ, or Babe Ruth. He's never heard of the mayor. He's a little fuzzy on his wife and kids, and he intends to forget he met me within the hour." Wonderful how the progression of notable characters places Babe Ruth ahead (behind, but ahead) of Jesus Christ and the Pope. Subtleties like this reward a careful reading.

I like the famous noirs, but my knowledge is limited. In fact, I started but did not finish Blackwell's "The Little Death" in Conjunctions 53 because it seemed like I had to do homework before I could understand it. You can read Shadow Man stand-alone, but I think it adds an extra dimension if you read "The Big Sleep," "The Maltese Falcon," and Blackwell's "The Little Death" first. This hefty assignment might affect Shadow Man's popularity.

Although Blackwell draws attention to this noir convention Author's Note, I found that the middle of the book was so full of characters, twists, and - especially - aliases that I felt inadequate as a reader to make sense of it and started to "switch off." I didn't realize how helpful the index was until too late - interested readers should really use it as a tool rather than seeing it as something that's just cute and superfluous. I know that excessive metaphors are a convention of noir writing, and usually they worked really well - but I might have cut down on the sheer # of them. For example, I might have cut "as slippery as an oil slick in a bubblebath," amongst others.

While I found the middle of the book daunting (the many-faced character of Penelope Sampson remains a mystery to me), the beginning and ending are both strong and - like a movie with a good twist - make me want to go through the book again to see the subtleties I might have missed. ...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Matt rated it really liked it

I like Blackwell as a person, and this book does nothing to make me think that's a mistake; while I was initially a little annoyed with the design and printing of the book—my cover was cut poorly, and I thought the decision to give so much of the book in italics and with a somewhat arbitrary margin was a little annoying. But a month since I read the book, I remember very little of that but still chuckle at some of the forced metaphors of Blackwell’s hard boiled style; really, the stylistic ...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Joe rated it it was amazing

I reviewed this book already for Ampersand Books. It's easily found. And much more in depth. I will just say that if you are a fan of pulp fiction, and in particular Hammett and Chandler, you need to read this book. There are some novels that when you put down, you just can't shut up about them. It seems like every other day I am telling someone to check out Shadow Man. Blackwell pulls of the niftiest trick. Be pays tribute without being derivative. He adopts the manner of speech, the tough guy ...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Londyn Kate rated it it was amazing

Won book, signed by author...awesome read, interesting from the very first page!

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Aug 21, 2013 David rated it it was amazing

Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler would both be pulling their hair out on this one as Blackwell out noir’s noir. Somewhere in between fact, fiction, and some third thing is this biographical fiction of fiction based on biography. Blackwell pulls together the fictional worlds of Hammett and Chandler (somehow weaving almost every complex plot of theirs that I’ve heard of into a single meta-conspiracy) and mashes it all up with fictionalized versions of the actual worlds of Hammett and ...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Ampersand Books rated it it was amazing

The problem with writing pulp is there’s nothing new under the sun. It’s all been done, you’re flogging a dead horse, can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I mean, it’s a cliché. No matter what you think you are bringing to the table, you can’t beat two men who got there before you. Chandler and Hammett arrived at the buffet early, ate fast, and left nothing but scraps for the rest of us. (Some reports place a third man at brunch. Usually James M. Cain. But these reports can’t be substantiated, ...more

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Jun 28, 2013 Brooks rated it liked it

Shelves: 2014-read, indie-publishing

I think this book undoubtedly succeeds at what it attempts to do. It takes classic noir and extends the stories and authors of the genre until they fray and start to unweave.

It asks a lot of the reader, I wish that I had a little more inkling of that before I started. As it was, I'm positive I didn't get everything out of this book. I will definitely read more of Blackwell, but hopefully go in with eyes wide open.

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