Hammett, Dashiell

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Dashiell Hammett weaves a captivating noir-style mystery
"THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF."
Hammet
Very Enjoyable with a Nifty Mystery
A Classic Detective Novel

The Maltese Falcon
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679722645
Release Date: 1989-07-17

Amazon.com

Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett's archetypally tough San Francisco detective, is more noir than L.A. Confidential and more vulnerable than Raymond Chandler's Marlowe. In The Maltese Falcon, the best known of Hammett's Sam Spade novels (including The Dain Curse and The Glass Key), Spade is tough enough to bluff the toughest thugs and hold off the police, risking his reputation when a beautiful woman begs for his help, while knowing that betrayal may deal him a new hand in the next moment.

Spade's partner is murdered on a stakeout; the cops blame him for the killing; a beautiful redhead with a heartbreaking story appears and disappears; grotesque villains demand a payoff he can't provide; and everyone wants a fabulously valuable gold statuette of a falcon, created as tribute for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Who has it? And what will it take to get it back? Spade's solution is as complicated as the motives of the seekers assembled in his hotel room, but the truth can be a cold comfort indeed.

Spade is bigger (and blonder) in the book than in the movie, and his Mephistophelean countenance is by turns seductive and volcanic. Sam knows how to fight, whom to call, how to rifle drawers and secrets without leaving a trace, and just the right way to call a woman "Angel" and convince her that she is. He is the quintessence of intelligent cool, with a wise guy's perfect pitch. If you only know the movie, read the book. If you're riveted by Chinatown or wonder where Robert B. Parker's Spenser gets his comebacks, read the master. --Barbara Schlieper

Book Description

A treasure worth killing for. Sam Spade, a slightly shopworn private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. A perfumed grafter named Joel Cairo, a fat man name Gutman, and Brigid O’Shaughnessy, a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. These are the ingredients of Dashiell Hammett’s coolly glittering gem of detective fiction, a novel that has haunted three generations of readers.

Customer Reviews:

Dashiell Hammett weaves a captivating noir-style mystery.......2007-05-30

As few have failed to mention, The Maltese Falcon was a significant piece of literature when it was published in1930, defining the classic noir-style detective genre and influencing many of today's writers. The story begins like this: Samuel Spade is a hard-boiled private eye established in San Francisco. He and his partner, Miles Archer, are approached by a beautiful woman from New York who asks them to tail a man named Floyd Thursby, who supposedly ran off with her younger sister. One of them is murdered that night and things take off from there. If you decide to traverse deeper into the novel, you'll soon become completely absorbed in one of Dashiell Hammett's glowing treasures.

You can probably compare this book to a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie --- by the last quarter, loyalties shift and advantages are earned by gaining the right type of leverage. As the title suggests, there's a Maltese falcon in the middle of it all. It's an intricate framework but nothing that you'll get lost over.

Gutman, Cairo, "Miss Wonderly," and Wilmer are great characters, each with a very distinct personality. They are defined by their unique mannerism and dialogue during conversation. Samuel Spade, the main character, has appeared in some of Hammett's other stories, and is considered the archetype of tough detective characters. Based on the decisions he makes at the end of the book, you'll see what kind of person he is and what kind of code of ethics he lives by.

Hammett's writing style was sometimes compared to Hemingway's and it's easy to see why in this novel. The Maltese Falcon is written economically. There's no extravagant embellishment or flowery description. Only the essentials. Here's a paragraph that demonstrates Hammett's deft touch nicely:

"A telephone-bell rang in darkness. When it had rung three times bed-springs creaked, fingers fumbled on wood, something small and hard thudded on a carpeted floor, the springs creaked again, and a man's voice said ..."

A clear picture is created from those sentences without all the unnecessary pronouns and articles. Hammett's writing is quick and neat. (This novel, in my opinion, only reveals the beginning of Hammett's way with prose. I must admit, after reading "Nightmare Town" I was surprised to see Hammett's full range and ability. He manages to describe things more atmospherically while maintaining elements of his terse style.)

In this novel, Dashiell Hammett purposely withholds the reader from certain knowledge, such as the motives for Spade's actions. Although you are always with him, you are never really told what Spade's plans or intentions are, leaving you to fit the pieces of that puzzle on your own. When Spade tells the infamous fat man, Gutman, that he possesses valuable information about the falcon, the fat man can not tell for sure whether he's telling the truth or bluffing. And neither can you! Rather than being frustrating, this is a preferred method of story-telling since it produces mystery and suspense. It helps that Hammett's conversations are described to minute detail since figuring out intentions involve examining the mien of conversations, looking at small gestures and facial expressions.

Overall, this is a great book and worth a few hours of your valuable time. If you're looking for one of the best in the classic detective genre, then look no further than The Maltese Falcon.

"THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF.".......2007-04-19

THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN AS A REVIEW OF THE FILM VERSION OF MALTESE FALCON. THE MAIN POINTS THERE APPLY HERE TO THE BOOK . THE DIALOGUE AND SEQUENCING IN THE MOVIE IS VERY CLOSE TO THE WAY THE ACTION UNFOLDS IN THE BOOK.

In literature and film there have been no lack of private detective-types depicted from the urbane Nick Charles (also a Hammett creation) to Mickey Spillane's rough and tumble Mike Hammer but the classic model for all modern ones is Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade (the Humphrey Bogart role in the film) in Maltese Falcon. Some may argue Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe and may have a point but as for film adaptation Spade wins hands down. Compare, if you will, Bogart's performance in Maltese Falcon with the Big Sleep. Get my point. But enough of that. What make's Spade the classic is his intrepidness, his orneriness, his dauntless dedication to the task at hand, his sense of irony, his incorruptibility, his willingness to take an inordinate amount of bumps and bruises for paltry fees and his off-hand manner with the ladies and a gun. And in Maltese Falcon he needs all of these qualities and then some.

And for what? It is the bird, stupid. You know, the stuff that dreams are made of. This modern tale of greed and desire gets nicely worked with a cast of adventurers, including Sam's love interest, who are serious, inept, and ultimately dangerous. There is a certain amount of off-hand humor as is warranted by some of the situations thrown in to boot. Sam is well up to handling everything thrown at him by is male adversaries. But, the dame (played by Mary Astor in the film), that is a different question. She is as greedy (if not more so) than the rest but she is ready to use her feminine wiles on even the incorruptible Spade in order to get that damn bird. That, dear friends, puts her beyond the pale and she will have many a lonely night in prison to think that through. In the end Sam's honor and the honor of his profession is intact, and that's what counts.

Hammet.......2007-03-08

One of the best writings from Hammet, if not the best. I enjoyed it very much. I couldn't stop reading to look for what happens next. A must.

Very Enjoyable with a Nifty Mystery.......2007-03-04

I am a huge fan of the police procedural and mystery genre. It was only natural that I go back and read one of the early key novels in this genre.

The book was fun to read, with the good ole fashioned hard boiled talk that one would expect.

Sam Spade makes for a very interesting character. I love the way he can just toss aside would be lovers, friends, and partners as long as it serves his purpose in solving the case and looking good. Spade is not at all sympathetic, in fact few characters in this novel were.

The mystery itself was good clean fun; nothing amazing or incredibly convoluted like a P.D. James novel, but nifty none the less.

Recommended reading for any bibliophile and people interested in the police procedural/private detective genre. I think Spade adequately lays the foundation for the private eyes of today: Elvis Cole and even Kinsey Millhone.

A Classic Detective Novel.......2007-02-27

The Maltese Falcon is a classic detective novel that is a great throwback to the private eye days of the 1920's. This book is a classic "who-done-it" mystery without all the implausible conclusions that is often written in current day mysteries. The main character Sam Spade is a street smart private eye that knows how to manipulate people and make up his own morals to get what he wants, including the girl, to solve a mystery. Spade's character simply gushes with Humphrey Bogart mannerisms and thus makes it easy for the reader to envision this guy in action. The author, Dashiell Hammett, has a unique way of developing characters and action with precisely written language that is not overly verbose. If you want to read a classic "who-done-it" mystery, then read The Maltese Falcon.

Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man (Library of America)

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The Maltese Falcon
Very exciting and convenient
The first benchmark
A classic
Well worth the time.

Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man (Library of America)
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)
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Crime Stories and Other Writings (Library of America)
Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)
Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America)

ASIN: 1883011671

Book Description

Complete in one volume, the five books that created the modern American crime novel

In a few years of extraordinary creative energy, Dashiell Hammett invented the modern American crime novel. In the words of Raymond Chandler, "Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse.... He put these people down on paper as they were, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used for these purposes."

The five novels that Hammett published between 1929 and 1934, collected here in one volume, have become part of modern American culture, creating archetypal characters and establishing the ground rules and characteristic tone for a whole tradition of hardboiled writing. Drawing on his own experiences as a Pinkerton detective, Hammett gave a harshly realistic edge to novels that were at the same time infused with a spirit of romantic adventure. His lean and deliberately simplified prose won admiration from such contemporaries as Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner.

Each novel is distinct in mood and structure. Red Harvest (1929) epitomizes the violence and momentum of his Black Mask stories about the anonymous detective the Continental Op, in a raucous and nightmarish evocation of political corruption and gang warfare in a western mining town. In The Dain Curse (1929) the Op returns in a more melodramatic tale involving jewel theft, drugs, and a religious cult. With The Maltese Falcon (1930) and its protagonist Sam Spade, Hammett achieved his most enduring popular success, a tightly constructed quest story shot through with a sense of disillusionment and the arbitrariness of personal destiny. The Glass Key (1931) is a further exploration of city politics at their most scurrilous. His last novel was The Thin Man (1934), a ruefully comic tale paying homage to the traditional mystery form and featuring Nick and Nora Charles, the sophisticated inebriates who would enjoy a long afterlife in the movies.

Customer Reviews:

The Maltese Falcon.......2006-11-07

An intriguing plot with just the right blend of wry humor, sex and secrets.

Very exciting and convenient.......2006-06-19

I do like these stories, though they are so rough! It is very helpful to be able to have them all together in this one good volume, I think. But it is dangerous to read them late at night, because you either get too excited to sleep, or you dream of bad men with their car headlamps switched off in the dark!

The first benchmark.......2005-08-19

Very nice edition of the master's novels. In addition to my love of Hammett's prose, I am fascinated by the subtle political aspects of his work: he was the first crime writer to question the status quo so frankly. K. C. Constantine said, "The crime writer is society's stoolie", and Hammett is still a reliable informant.

A classic.......2004-08-26

"A Classic"

What makes a classic? In the case of a detective novel, it is a book that can be read and reread and that gives pleasure on each reading. The Maltese Falcon is now seventy-five years old, yet it continues to amaze, to amuse, to engage.

You may know the plot, but you still can't remember every twist and turn of the unfolding story, and you are surprised by details here and there you did not previously notice, or had forgotten. You may know the principal characters-the cynical detective Sam Spade, the seductive adventuress Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the exotic Joel Cairo, the crafty Caspar Gutman. But they are so expertly drawn, so powerfully realized, that you learn more about them on each reading.

You may already have committed some of the most famous lines of dialog to heart ("The cheaper the crook the gaudier the patter"-- "You're good. You're very good. It's chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get into your voice when you say things like `Be generous, Mr. Spade'"). Yet you continue to discover more, and you continue on each reading to relish the bite, the humor, the intelligence of Hammett's prose.

It's practically impossible to read this book without thinking of the motion picture starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet. Don't try. John Huston's script departs here and there from the story line of the novel, but not in any serious way. Most of the changes are efforts to streamline the story and make it fit the standard (for 1941) length of a screenplay. And the best lines spoken by Bogart, Astor, Lorre, and Greenstreet are pure Hammett. The movie is true to the spirit of the book, and if you are familiar with both you can love them both.

At age seventy-five, The Maltese Falcon is a classic, and there is good reason to believe that in another seventy-five years it will still be one.

Well worth the time........2004-07-28

I have read all five novels at least twice. Will go for three times when winter arrives.

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Hammett's Interests & Values in His Own Words. An Excellent Supplement to a Biography.
Looking over the Thin Man's Shoulder

Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett , Richard Layman , and Josephine Hammett Marshall
Manufacturer: Counterpoint Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Hardboiled Mystery Writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, Ross Macdonald: A Literary Reference

ASIN: 1582430810

Amazon.com

<B>Penzler Pick, April 2001:</B> What seems a long overdue volume is finally making its appearance. (After all, The Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler was published 20 years ago.) Here, in more than 600 pages crammed with important as well as intimate letters, is a view into the mind of the most important American mystery writer of the 20th century. While I don't believe Hammett could carry Chandler's pen when it came to literary excellence, it's fair to say that Chandler couldn't have published much had Hammett not made the private eye novel both popular and acceptable in the world of American letters.

While I don't recommend starting at the beginning and reading straight through to the end, you can dip into virtually any letter and find an interesting sentence, a fresh way of looking at something seemingly familiar, or learn something you didn't know about Hammett and the people he knew. Take, for example, this brief note to his publisher, Alfred Knopf, in October 1934. The Thin Man had been published in January of that year and was by far Hammett's most successful book. Knopf wanted to capitalize on that success and attempted to get a sixth novel out of his author. Hammett wrote back: "Dear Alfred--So I'm a bum--so what's done of the book looks terrible--so I'm out here (Beverly Hills) drowning my shame in M-G-M money for 10 weeks."

And isn't this interesting? Hammett was stationed in Alaska during World War II and had an active correspondence with Lillian Hellman but also with Prudence Whitfield, the wife of Raoul Whitfield, a fellow Black Mask writer and one of Hammett's closest friends. So Hammett writes to Hellman on May 6, then again on June 3, saying "I know I'm a lowdown bastard not to have written you in all this time..." Well, he was probably right. In the interim, he'd written to Prudence, signing off with "Good night, darling, and much love..." Is there anyone out there who doesn't believe there may have been a bit of hanky-panky with his best friend's wife while darling Lillie remained sublimely unaware?

There's so much more here I could quote for pages. Nice letters to his daughters, Josephine (who wrote an introduction to this book) and Mary; correspondence with other famous writers, his publisher, the editor of Black Mask, etc. There is also a splendid editing job by Richard Layman, probably the country's leading authority on Hammett. His expertise as Hammett's biographer and bibliographer has made his footnotes useful in putting into context the references that may be obscure to some readers.

Here is a book worthy to stand right next to The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, Red Harvest,The Dain Curse, and The Thin Man on your bookshelf. --Otto Penzler

Book Description

A literary event: the letters, both private and professional, of Dashiell Hammett, creator of Sam Spade and father of the hardboiled crime novel.

In his five great crime novels, all of them written in a magnificent burst of creativity between 1927 and 1935, Dashiell Hammett gave America a cast of immortal characters-Sam Spade, the Continental Op, and Nick and Nora Charles, mold-breaking, red-blooded alternatives to Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey. In the words of Raymond Chandler, Hammett "gave murder back to the kind of people who commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not with hand-wrought dueling pistols." A popular writer from the start, he aspired to a higher goal. As he was working on his classic The Maltese Falcon, he wrote a letter to his publisher about the potential of the detective-story form: "Someday somebody's going to make 'literature' out of it...and I'm selfish enough to have my hopes."

Though Hammett's work is admired by millions, the man himself has always been an enigma. Now, at last, comes a volume of his letters, revealing not only the private man but also the hard-working-and hard-living-professional. Yes, he was part cynical tough guy, like Sam Spade; he was part sophisticated inebriate, like Nick Charles. But the character of Dashiell Hammett was too complex to be easily categorized. His letters to his family, lovers, and colleagues show his personal warmth, his political commitment, his wide-ranging intellectual curiosity. With wit, intelligence, and style, these letters further confirm Hammett's extraordinary talent as writer and observer.

Customer Reviews:

Hammett's Interests & Values in His Own Words. An Excellent Supplement to a Biography........2006-08-22

"Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett" includes 950 letters that Dashiell Hammett wrote between 1921 and 1960, spanning most of his adult life, from before his marriage to Josephine Dolan to just months before his death in 1961 -though the meaty correspondence stops a few years before that. Daughter Josephine Hammett Marshall started the project, and she nicely summarizes what these letters say about her father in the book's foreword. Editor (and Hammett biographer) Richard Layman discusses the sources in the preface. The letters were addressed to at least 17 different people plus some miscellaneous correspondence, but the most frequent recipients, in descending order, are: Hammett's friend and companion, the playwright Lillian Hellman; daughter Mary Hammett; daughter Josephine Hammett; wife Josephine Dolan Hammett; girlfriend Pru Whitfield; and Hellman's secretary Nancy Bragdon. End notes identify people and other references in each letter where needed.

The letters are organized chronologically into 5 sections, each introduced by an explanation of the circumstances of Hammett's life during the relevant time period. Part 1 (1921-1930), entitled "Writer", spans Hammett's married life, often strained by his tuberculosis and efforts to make ends meet, and the bulk of his literary achievement, beginning with early Black Mask magazine correspondence and ending with editing frustrations at Knopf. Part 2 (1931-1942), entitled "Celebrity", introduces paramour Lillian Hellman, to whom Hammett wrote longer, more formal letters than he did to his wife, discussing literature, career, and mutual friends. Teenaged daughter Mary engaged her father by asking him about the Spanish Civil War and emerging Nazi power, subjects for which he held passionate opinions, so Hammett's letters to Mary reveal his politics and values.

Part 3 (1942-1945), entitled "Soldier", is the longest section but spans the shortest period of time. Dashiell Hammett enlisted in the Army at the age of 48, eager to serve his country in its fight against fascism. He was stationed in the Aleutian islands, where he edited "The Adakian", a camp newspaper with distribution of 3,000-5,000. Perhaps due to Army discipline or the scarcity of alcohol, Hammett was a prolific correspondent during this time. He writes mostly of daily camp life and most frequently to Lillian Hellman, whose secretary provided Hammett with material for his newspaper. Part 4 (1945-1951), entitled "Activist", finds Hammett with a new sense of purpose after the War. He taught mystery writing at the Jefferson School for Social Science in Manhattan, campaigned for civil rights, and became active in communist organizations. Daughter Josephine Marshall was married by this time and a frequent correspondent -also during the 5 months Hammett spent in jail for contempt of court in connection with the Civil Rights Congress bail fund.

Part 5 (1952-1960), entitled "Survivor", is a miscellany of letters that reveal a man with diminishing vigor. He seems to have little strength left for discussions or details but always a warm, supportive word for his family. In the back of the book, there is a list of the books to which Hammett refers and an index (mostly people and titles). I have read 2 Dashiell Hammett biographies. These letters don't change my impression of Hammett, but reinforce it. They flesh out his personality a good deal. He was a talented writer, a loving but absent father, a man of strong convictions (some naive), who never complained through his share of hardships. Constant financial difficulties and frequent talk of writing projects that never materialize may seem pitiful. But they are reminders of Hammett's nagging faults, the sort that every life has.

Looking over the Thin Man's Shoulder.......2001-08-27

Reading this collection of letters by the author of "The Maltese Falcon" and other great mystery novels provides a revealing insight to the thoughts and feelings of this intensely private man. Peppered with delightful sides of humor it is easily readable. One can dip into one or another of the phases of his life: the early short story years, his service in World War I, fame and fortune in books, radio, and film; marriage, fatherhood, divorce, romances, chiefly with Lillian Hellman, service in Alaska in WWII, his jailing for defying the anti-communism of the 50's, his final illness, poverty, and death. In letters to Hellman, and his own daughters, Mary and Josephine he comments with a a few words on hundreds of books he read. A compendium of the books fills five and one-half pages at the end of the book. There is no explicit explanation of why his voice fell silent after his brilliant novels, but the perceptive reader is given clues in the man's own words, written with no intention to have them preserved for history but fortunately available to us now.

Average customer rating:

The Thin Man
The Thin Man
The Thin Man
it is what it is
The movie was loosely based on the book

The Thin Man
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Maltese Falcon
Red Harvest
The Glass Key
The Big Sleep
Farewell, My Lovely

ASIN: 0679722637
Release Date: 1989-07-17

Amazon.com

The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett's classic tale of murder in Manhattan, became the popular movie series with William Powell and Myrna Loy, and both the movies and the novel continue to captivate new generations of fans.

Nick and Nora Charles, accompanied by their schnauzer, Asta, are lounging in their suite at the Normandie in New York City for the Christmas holiday, enjoying the prerogatives of wealth: meals delivered at any hour, theater openings, taxi rides at dawn, rubbing elbows with the gangster element in speakeasies. They should be annoyingly affected, but they charm. Mad about each other, sardonic, observant, kind to those in need, and cool in a fight, Nick and Nora are graceful together, and their home life provides a sanctuary from the rough world of gangsters, hoodlums, and police investigations into which Nick is immediately plunged.

A lawyer-friend asks Nick to help find a killer and reintroduces him to the family of Richard Wynant, a more-than-eccentric inventor who disappeared from society 10 years before. His former wife, the lush and manipulative Mimi, has remarried a European fortune hunter who turns out to be a vindictive former associate of her first husband and is bent on the ruin of Wynant's family fortune. Wynant's children, Dorothy and Gilbert, seem to have inherited the family aversion to straight talk. Dorothy, who has matured into a beautiful young woman, has a crush on Nick, and so, in a hero-worshipping way, does mama's boy Gilbert. Nick and Nora respond kindly to their neediness as Nick tries to make sense of misinformation, false identities, far-fetched alibis, and, at the center of the confusion, the mystery of The Thin Man, Richard Wynant. Is he mad? Is he a killer? Or is he really an eccentric inventor protecting his discovery from intellectual theft?

The dialogue is spare, the locales lively, and Nick, the narrator, shows us the players as they are, while giving away little of his own thoughts. No one is telling the whole truth, but Nick remains mostly patient as he doggedly tries to backtrack the lies. Hammett's New York is a cross between Damon Runyon and Scott Fitzgerald--more glamorous than real, but compelling when visited in the company of these two charmers. The lives of the rich and famous don't get any better than this! --Barbara Schlieper

Book Description

Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett's most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.

Customer Reviews:

The Thin Man.......2006-10-26

The Thin Man is a mystery solving the case of Julia Wolf's murder. Nick Charles, a retired detective, and his wife Nora find clues while helping a young girl named Dorothy through problems with her abusive mother and crazy suspect of a dad. As the story unfolds the situation turns out to be more complex than a single murder. There are many twists involving many characters that make the murder hard to solve.
The characters are well-developed with depth and realistic personalities. Detective Charles sarcastic wit makes him a fun character through which to sift through all the information to solve the murder.
Nevertheless the detail of information sifted through in the book can also make parts of the book a slow read. The author goes on large tangents that seem to detract from the story. For example at a party at the beginning of the book Nick is asked about cannibalism in America by a suspects child, Nick hands him a book which is then quoted at great length. Perhaps the author includes this to keep the reader guessing as to its relevance or as a device to show what people may do under extreme circumstances. Either way these side stories make the book drag at parts.
Despite being slow in certain sections the character development and the way the author highlights the relevant pieces of information to solve the mystery is satisfying. If the mystery is like walking through a forest to identify which trees are needed to guide the reader through to the far side of the forest, the author describes in detail too many of the trees. Yet, at the end, it is fun when the detective highlights and connects the facts that are part of the mystery.

The Thin Man.......2006-10-26

it is what it is.......2006-07-11

I feel bad for writing this but: I didn't love The Thin Man. I wanted to, and Raymond Chandler did, and I love Raymond Chandler but...oh, I just couldn't.

I thought the book was kind of repetitive. Oh, look, yet another morning when Nick wakes up and wants to down a bottle of hard liquor. What, another shady visitor thinks Nora's just a doll? Is that weepy girl really coming round again?

I figured out who the villain was pretty quickly, and I never really attached to the characters. So yes, it's a fascinating period piece, and a good character study, but I don't think I'll be picking up another Dashiell Hammet anytime soon.

The movie was loosely based on the book.......2006-03-27

I'm a huge fan of the Thin Man series of movies, so when I saw the book being offered I snapped it up. I found that the movie only slightly follows the book. The characters are there and some of the Nick and Nora relationship dynamics as well along with the basic plot but other than that there wasn't a lot of similarity. The humor that was such a wonderful part of the movies only occasionally shows up in the book. The witty dialog between Nick and Nora is pretty much absent as well. In short I was pretty disappointed. Perhaps if I hadn't seen the Nick and Nora movies I would have enjoyed the book. If you like old detective stories you will probably enjoy it. My next stop is the Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. I may not enjoy it as much as the movie, as in the case of the Thin Man, but who can resist reading the books that started such classic and enduring movies?

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The Novels of Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0394438604
Release Date: 1965-09-12

Lost Stories (The Ace Performer Collection series)

Average customer rating:

All Right for Hammett Fans
Hybrid Hammett Biography and Collection of Long-Lost Work.
Hammett Revisited
For Those Who Want to See Hard-to-Find Hammett Material
Extremely disappointing

Lost Stories (The Ace Performer Collection series)
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Vince Emery Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Crime Stories and Other Writings (Library of America)
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ASIN: 0972589813

Book Description

Dashiell Hammett, the creator of Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man, was one of the 20th century’s most influential and entertaining authors. Even so, many of Hammett’s stories—including some of his best—have been out of the reach of anyone but a handful of scholars and collectors, until now. This essential compendium rescues 21 long-lost Hammett stories, all either never collected in an anthology or unavailable for decades. These stories appear nowhere else, and represent a variety of styles from the famous mysterysmith: his first detective fiction, humorous satires, adventure yarns, a sensitive autobiographical piece, and a Thin Man story told with photos. In addition, all stories have been restored to their original versions, replacing often wholesale cuttings with the original text for the first time. To round out this celebration of Hammett, three-time Edgar Award–winner Joe Gores has written an introduction describing how Hammett influenced literature, movies, television, and Gores’ own life.

Customer Reviews:

All Right for Hammett Fans.......2007-06-09

The `Background' by Vince Emery says this book has 21 Hammett stories that were never published in a book or are otherwise unavailable (p.1). The commentary gives the events in Hammett's life. Emery created the book he wanted to read (p.2). Hammett's stories reflect his life (p.3). The `Introduction' by Joe Gores tells of his life as a writer and private detective. He wrote the novel "Hammett" that was made into a film. Hammett's work influenced a lot of other writers (p.15). He quotes Raymond Chandler as to the importance of Hammett (p.18). Gores traces the Hammett influence on TV series (pp.29-30). "A Rough Start" tells about Hammett's life around the Great War. [The Spanish Flu was so named because it was first reported in Spain. Spain was at peace and had no censorship of the press like the warring powers (p.35).] "1922, New Writer" lists "Hammettisms" the recurring style of Hammett. They are all in "The Barber and His Wife".

Hammett's "The Road Home" went against the traditions of detective fiction (pp.76-77). The 8 innovations are listed (pp.82-83). ["Spicy slang"?] `Part Three' contains 8 stories that show Hammett's earliest writings. "The Green Elephant" is an interesting and ironic story. [O. Henry?] "Laughing Masks" shows more skill as a writer. `Part Seven' tells of Hammett's life in the 1930s. Hammett seems to have gambled away much of his earnings. [Some say gamblers really want to lose their money because of a subconscious hatred of money. Would that apply here?] Hammett's drinking was irresponsible (p.290).

In January 1936 Hammett had a "mental and physical breakdown" (p.292). Could this have affected his mind and explain his later actions and loss of writing skills? Hammett was involved with the Screen Writer's Guild in its battle against the mob-run and corporate favored IATSE. Hammett became a supporter of Stalin's policies; his personal life had problems (p.297). Was Hammett embarrassed by the Hitler-Stalin pact? No, he just reversed himself (p.301). Then he flip-flopped again in 1941 (p.305). ["Sam Spade" knew the value of putting on an appearance, but he had a purpose in that.] Did Hammett join the Army to make a break with his past or as a penitent?

One effect of the suit against Hammett was the ruling that a writer owned the rights for sequels to their stories (p.339). His last years were spent in poverty and poor health. He died of lung cancer (smoking) and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Hammett's works are still popular today, unlike the then better selling "S.S. Van Dine". Could this be due to the simplicity of the stories? Sam Spade wants to find out who killed Miles Archer. He can rule out Floyd, Joel, Wilmer, and Casper. Sherlock Holmes said that when you eliminated the likely suspects the unlikely suspect was the guilty party (or words to that effect). There is a similar surprise in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". [Did that story influence Hammett?]

Hybrid Hammett Biography and Collection of Long-Lost Work. .......2007-01-08

"Lost Stories" is a compilation of 21 long-unavailable pieces of writing by Dashiell Hammett crossed with a biography by Vince Emery that follows Hammett's life and career in between the stories. I say "pieces of writing" because only about a dozen of them could be called "stories". The pieces range from one-paragraph vignettes to the 41-page story "Laughing Masks". All originally appeared in magazines between 1922 and 1941 and have not been available in recent decades -though "Night Shade" also appears in the "Vintage Hammett" sampler. I recommend "Lost Stories" to Hammett enthusiasts and scholars, not to casual fans. Combining a biography of Hammett with assorted obscure pieces of writing gives less informed readers a misleading picture of Hammett's work, because his best and most iconic work is absent.

Mystery writer Joe Gores introduces "Lost Stories" with discussion of Hammett's influence on 20th century American writers, his style, and themes. The bulk of the book divides Hammett's life into 8 parts, introduced with biographical essays by Vince Emery. Short stories and other writings are included chronologically, in the appropriate sections, often followed by critical analysis by Emery. The first and last sections contain no stories, but relate Hammett's life before he started writing and after World War II. Emery's essays include some info that was new to me in spite of my having read several Hammett biographies. Some of the essays contain too much hyperbole for my taste, however, and the conversions of Hammett's earnings to current dollar values are exaggerated. Emery may be using the unskilled wage rate to convert the values instead of comparing purchasing power using the CPI or GDP Deflator. To estimate current purchasing power, multiply 1930s dollars by 10 or 15.

If you want to make a beeline for the stories without wading through the rest, these are my picks: "The Barber and His Wife", because it's the first story Hammett wrote. The best crime stories in this book are "The Sardonic Star of Tom Doody", "The Joke on Eloise Morey", "Laughing Masks", "The Green Elephant", and "Itchy". Two very disparate stories about a writer are "The Dimple" and "This Little Pig", which comments on a screenwriter's dilemma. "Ber-Bulu" takes place in the 1890s on a Philippine island and is Hammett's only period story.

Hammett Revisited.......2006-07-17

I have to perfectly honest: after the first chapter and first story, I was convinced that this book was going to be, largely, a forgettable exploration of the smaller, lesser, and perhaps even unknown works of Dashiell Hammett, arguably one of the singlemost unacknowledged literary genius of our times. Hammett's crisp, clean prose has influenced hundreds if not thousands of writers, not to mention the influence his work has had on countless readers of noir and even general crime fiction. Compiler and author Emery points out that the contemporary crime novel really owes its legacy to Hammett, who brushed aside the literary tradition of the elitist ubermensch as detectives and, instead, focused on less honest, far from perfect, flawed central characters who still managed to solve the case without tossing "justice" -- far more important to today's readers than "law" -- out the window.

However, after realizing that what truly mattered here through Emery's contribution was revisiting Hammett's artful prose not so much against the perspective of only world history but equally against the private, personal, flawed life of the author. Stories are broken up with Emery's biographical summation, and it becomes much easier to see how Hammett's own life -- the people, the places, the persuasions both good and bad -- helped contribute to the overall shape and spectacle that was to become these works and the larger works such as THE MALTESE FALCON and THE THIN MAN novels. Hammett's prose takes center stage here, but, under Emery's direction, it shares screen time with Hammett, a writer arguably as flawed as he was gifted.

The final accomplishment here is the principle reason for the five-star review: there's no way any reader can go back and enjoy any of Hammett's work WITHOUT rethinking what influenced the work. The stories will all have new meaning, and, quite possibly, you'll never read one of Hammett's handful of novels without turning back to LOST STORIES to get a better grasp of the personal context under which the tome was written.

For Those Who Want to See Hard-to-Find Hammett Material.......2006-05-14

Hammett fans owe Vince Emery a big "Thanks!" for putting this volume together. I spent a lot of delightful time going over this enjoyable book and reconsidering the origins of the detective as the focus for a story . . . rather than the mystery.

As the title of this volume suggests, these are Hammett stories that you cannot easily find elsewhere. Since they are not usually available in complete form, these are obviously not his most famous stories.

There are other available collections of the better known Hammett stories (such as The Big Knockover edited by Lillian Hellman, The Continental Op Short Story Collection edited by Steven Marcus, Nightmare Town edited by Kirby McCauley, Martin H. Greenberg and Ed Gorman, and Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories and Other Writings edited by Steven Marcus). You'll probably like the stories in those collections better than in Lost Stories.

But after you've finished all of Hammett's novels and short stories, you'll yearn for more. And that's where Lost Stories will become a treasure for you.

This extensive volume also contains a running commentary on Hammett's life and times which will give you a good perspective on his career and family life. . . especially through the lenses of being a soldier, tubercular invalid, new husband and father, private detective, hungry writer, advertising man, famous writer, incorrigible drunk and gambler, script doctor and Communist. I found it helpful to know where he was in his life when each story was written. I also appreciated understanding how his earnings translate into buying power today.

I didn't expect a lot from these stories. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that Hammett was always a good writer . . . before he became an astonishingly good writer.

Since many of these stories are quite brief, I won't attempt to describe each one except to note which ones I especially enjoyed. The book begins with Hammett's very first story, The Barber and His Wife, which displays a powerful ability to portray character with a few actions and words. The first published story (for Smart Set) was the anecdote-length tale called The Parthian Shot. Hemingway would have admired such a story.

The Road Home was his first detective story . . . and you can already feel the power of Sam Spade in it.

By 1923, Hammett's skill as a satirist was fully developed in such stories as The Master Mind and The Sardonic Star of Tom Doody. The stories begin to take on a special quality with The Joke on Eloise Morey as he employs stream of consciousness narrative and a dark-tinged sense of humor. Some of the stories seem almost autobiographical like Holiday. Plot lines begin to emerge in stories like The Green Elephant, Laughing Masks, Itchy, Ber-Bulu and This Little Pig that have the germs of full-fledged novels in them.

I particularly commend Laughing Masks, Ber-Bulu and This Little Pig to you. They are the crown jewels of this collection.

Ardent Hammett fans will also cheer for Joe Gores' delightful introduction.

Get these stories!

Extremely disappointing.......2006-04-16

As a hardcore Hammett fan you are always excited about the discovery of additional Hammett stories coming back into print. Alas, these stories are a real disappointment. There's a reason they aren't in print. Short (several less than 2 pages), mostly disconnected from the Continental Op & Novels that Hammett fans love; they often simply showcase a talented writer's future, much the way some early pencil sketches done by a famous painter are intersting but not worth purchase. The book was written not so much as to present unpublished Hammett as for the author/editor to get his 15 minutes of fame. I will admit, that if you don't know much about Hammett's life the book has some value as the biographical pieces are accurate and interesting.

Perhaps all the Hammett that's worth being in print has already been printed. Put simply, my copy of this book had to be purchased shrink wrapped - and it is obvious why the book was shrinkwrapped. If you had a chance to open and review it before puchasing, you simply wouldn't pay the price.

Crime Stories and Other Writings (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

Large Collection of Hammett Stories in One Enduring Volume.
What's wrong with the Library of America?
Collected Pulp Fiction
An undeniable "must" for any mystery buff!
A muffed opportunity

Crime Stories and Other Writings (Library of America)
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man (Library of America)
Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)
Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)
Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)
Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America)

ASIN: 1931082006
Release Date: 2001-09-06

Book Description

"If Dashiell Hammett ends up rubbing (or bending) elbows with Mark Twain, why, probably neither man will mind." (Chicago Sun Times, on Hammett: Complete Novels)

In scores of stories written for Black Mask and other pulp magazines in the 1920s and 1930s, Dashiell Hammett used the vernacular adventure tale to register the jarring textures and revved-up cadences of modern America. His stories opened up crime fiction to the realities of American streets and American speech. These texts, along with some revealing essays and an early version of his novel The Thin Man, are reprinted here for the first time without the cuts and revisions introduced by later editors.

Hammett's years of experience as a Pinkerton detective give even his most outlandishly plotted mysteries a gritty credibility. Mixing melodramatic panache and poker-faced comedy, his stories are hard-edged entertainment for an era of headlong change and extravagant violence, tracking the devious, nearly nihilistic exploits of con men and blackmailers, slumming socialites and deadpan assassins. As guide through this underworld he created the Continental Op, the nameless and deliberately unheroic detective separated from the brutality and corruption around him only by his professionalism.

Steven Marcus is the editor.

Customer Reviews:

Large Collection of Hammett Stories in One Enduring Volume........2004-08-17

"Crime Stories and Other Writings" contains 24 short stories and 3 additional selections, arranged chronologically, which Dashiell Hammett wrote between 1923 and 1934. The stories all first appeared in pulp fiction magazines and span all but one year of the master of detective fiction's career. "Crime Stories" offers three stories which cannot be found in any other volume currently in print: "Arson Plus" and "Slippery Finger", which were first published in "Black Mask" magazine under the pseudonym Peter Collinson, and "Creeping Siamese". These stories all feature the Continental Op detective, an always nameless, stubbornly practical character whom Hammett based on a fellow detective from his days at Pinkerton Detective Agency, Jimmy Wright, and on himself. Nineteen of this book's stories feature the Continental Op, making it the largest collection of Op stories available. Among the best of these are "Zig Zags of Treachery", "The House on Turk Street", "The Whosis Kid", and "The Big Knockover". "The Girl with the Silver Eyes" is a follow-up to "The House on Turk Street", so be sure to read "Turk Street" first. "The Big Knockover" and "$106,000 Blood Money" were originally a two-parter, but were published as a single novella in 1943. As their styles differ somewhat, the stories are more successful when separated, as they are here. The story called "Women, Politics and Murder" in this volume has been called "Death on Pine Street" in other volumes; they're the same story. It's interesting to note that "Fly Paper" was inspired by two real cases of murder that employed the same peculiar method. Among the five stories that do not feature the Continental Op is the novella "Woman in the Dark". It's mediocre, but has often been published as a stand-alone volume.

The three "Other Writings" to which the book's title refers are: "The Thin Man: An Early Typescript", "From the Memoirs of a Private Detective", and "Suggestions to Detective Story Writers". The early version of "The Thin Man" was written in 1930, four years before the final product was to be published and bears only the most superficial resemblance to the now-famous sleuthing of Nick and Nora Charles. It's a good story that introduces a new detective, John Guild of the Associated Detective Bureau. That it was never finished is regrettable. "From the Memoirs of a Private Detective" is 29 short anecdotes and words of wisdom gained from Hammett's experience as a real detective, first published in "The Smart Set" in 1923. Some of these are very funny. In "Suggestions to Detective Story Writers", Hammett, frustrated by the abundant inaccuracies in detective fiction written by non-detectives, sets the record straight on 24 common errors. This was first published in "The New York Post" in 1930 and is interesting, if out of date at this point. Editor Stephen Marcus has included a Chronology of the important events in Dashiell Hammett's life in the back of the book, as well as explanations of potentially cryptic slang terms and period references in "Notes", also found in the back.

With 24 short stories and 3 additional pieces of writing, "Crime Stories and Other Writings" is the most comprehensive single volume of Dashiell Hammett's short fiction available. Hats off to the Library of America for publishing 3 stories that are not currently found in any other volume. Unfortunately, you will still have to buy all four collections of Hammett's short stories to get all available stories: this one plus "Nightmare Town" from Knopf and "The Continental Op" and "The Big Knockover" from Vintage Crime. If you don't care to have every story, but would like a sizable sampling that includes some of Hammett's best, "Crime Stories and Other Writings" is an excellent choice. It contains the largest number of stories, presented in an attractive compact hardback volume and printed on thin acid-free paper, making it far more durable than other collections. This is a nice volume for both the casually curious and the addicted Dashiell Hammett fan.

What's wrong with the Library of America?.......2002-09-11

First they claim to have all of Raymond Chandler's stories in one volume. They don't, four are missing, and just happen to be the ones most sought after by true fans. Not to mention the eight they admit to omitting. They're excuse? Considerations for length and theme, it's true that three of the missing four are not mysteries, and that is what makes them unique. But why did they leave out "The Pencil"? The length problem could have been solved by omitting the section of Chandler's letters, there are whole volumes dedicated to those. And they could have cut some of the essays that are also included in other volumes, and replaced them with other essays that are rotting away in issues of the Atlantic Monthly. And they could have omitted the "Double Indemnity script and repalced it with "The Blue Dahlia" which is out of print.
That is how they messed up their "definative"' collection of Chandler and they seem to have made worse editing choices with their collection of Hammmett's stories. The way it stands now, if you want every story Hammett wrote you must buy this book. It includes five stories that appear to be collected here for the first time. But, then you'll have to buy "Nightmare Town" and the "Big Knockover". Why did LOA do it this way? Why not omit the four stories already available in "Nightmare Town" amd replace them with the three that are missing from "The Big Knockover"? That way if you bought "Nightmare Town" you'd have the twelve remaining stories and you're collection is complete. If they were strapped for space they could omit the 58 page typescript for "'The Thin Man".

Collected Pulp Fiction.......2002-08-16

I debated whether this should be 3 stars or 4, and decided on 4 because of the creative plots and characters. Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) dropped out of school at the age of 15, working at a variety of jobs before joining the Pinkerton Dectective Agency at the age of 21, working there before and after his service in the US Army during World War I. He came down with TB in the Army, and continuing illnesses made it difficult for him to work, so he became a writer. He is best known for the "Maltese Falcon" and other novels. He died penniless, largely due to judgements by the IRS for unpaid income taxes.

It is apparent from some of the other reviews that reviewers are unfamiliar with the process of publishing a collection. There are copyrights involved, and it is necessary to obtain permission from the copyright holders, often a different publisher (which may or may not be forthcoming). There are also fees payable to copyright holders, and demands sometimes make it impractical to include material (I am speaking from personal experience).

This collection contains 24 shorter stories originally published between 1923 and 1934, mainly in "Black Mask," with one each from "Argosy," "Mystery Stories," "Liberty," and "Colliers." The 20 stories from "Black Mask" feature the Continental Op, a detective from the Continental Detective Agency who is described as fat but never identified by name - call him "the Fat Man" for purposes of reference. The stories are in narrative form, as told by the main character. There is also an early typescript of "The Thin Man," various notes by the author, and biographical material on his life.

Rather than being literary masterpieces, these stories were written as entertainment for the masses. They are written in the somewhat macho style of that time period, with dead bodies left about the landscape. The Fat Man is not quite Fearless Fosdick, but he survives more than a normal amount of blows, knife wounds, and near misses from bullets. The stories will appeal to those readers who like live action. They may have less appeal to readers looking for high tech (computers, cell phones, etc.). There are interesting references to the time period with people driving Locomobiles, etc., and directing someone to "keep the steam up." A lot of the action is in San Francisco in the 1920's. This was an era before Miranda Rights, etc., when police were more inclined to kick in a door and sometimes slap people aside the head.

There are interesting characters sprinkled through the stories. One man has the ultimate con game, hiring himself out as a hit man and collecting the advance with no intention of performing the hit. What can his clients do, complain to the police? His idea of a money tree is someone with lots of enemies.

Like most collections, there is some variation in quality. The volume is good value for the money with 900 pages of stories. While well bound, the volume is printed on somewhat thin paper which could be easily damaged.

An undeniable "must" for any mystery buff!.......2001-11-11

Dashiell Hammett was the celebrated author and experienced detective who has been acclaimed as the father of the American hardboiled crime novel. This anthology of his work proves him to be a master of short stories as well. His tales, originally written for pulp magazines such as Black Mask in the 1920's and 1930's, drew upon the realities of American streets and American speech to create adventures felt and sounded truly real. This comprehensive collection from the original texts as they appeared in the pulps is free of the cuts and revisions imposed by later editors. In addition to 24 stories, Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories And Other Writings also contains essays and an early version of Hammett's novel "The Thin Man." Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories And Other Writings is an undeniable "must" for any mystery buff!

A muffed opportunity.......2001-10-17

The Library of America did an excellent job with its Raymond Chandler volumes, which lacked only the "cannibalized" stories that Chandler himself asked not to be reprinted, but I can't say the same for its new (and final) volume of Dashiell Hammett.

Of the three Hammett short story collections on my shelves, this volume replaces one: THE CONTINENTAL OP, which happened to be edited by Steven Marcus, the editor of the Library of America volume. It includes only 5 of the 20 selections in the recent NIGHTMARE TOWN repackaging; from THE BIG KNOCKOVER it leaves out "The Gatewood Caper," "Corkscrew" (the Continental Op goes cowboy!), and, most unforgivably, "Tulip," an autobiographical meditation on storytelling which is the only sizable chunk of Hammett's postwar writing ever to surface. It does include "Woman in the Dark," currently in print as a slim single volume, dropping its subtitle ("A Novel of Dangerous Romance"); there may be good textual reasons for that decision, but they aren't described in this edition's notes.

Nice to get this work on acid-free paper, but the Library of America is intended to produce authoritative editions. It's unfortunate if predictable that this goal is forgotten when the series takes on the work which needs such attention most: that which hasn't already received the scholarly text treatment.

Average customer rating:

CLEANING UP DODGE

Mr. Hammet

'Harvest' this high quality read from a master of the detective genre.

Sharp, brief and clear dialogue

Red Harvest

Red Harvest
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679722610
Release Date: 1989-07-17

Book Description

When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

Customer Reviews:

CLEANING UP DODGE .......2007-06-25

I have just finished reviewing in this space all of Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe detective series. It occurred to me that I might as well review the work of that other exemplar of the modern hard-boiled noir detective story, Dashiell Hammett. Most of those familar with his work know it from Nick Charles of the Thin Man or, more likely, Sam Spade of the immortal Maltese Falcon but Hammett, like Chandler, did not blossom forth with these classics without a grinding apprenticeship in pulp detective fiction. Red Harvest represents Hammett's baptism. This story of an unnamed shamus who moreover works for a detective agency runs against the type we have come to expect from Hammett and Chandler-the independent, no-holds barred character. Have no fear our Continental Op has most of those qualities and the single-mindeness to clean up a rotten crime-dominated town no questions asked. While there is not the plot or character development of Hammett's later work here this is still a good read.

Mr. Hammet.......2007-03-08

The same operator that apears in The Continental Op, but this novel is more elaborated. A must. Hammet at his best.

'Harvest' this high quality read from a master of the detective genre........2006-12-19

Nowadays, not many people think of reading a pulp detective novel from 1929. Most would expect the plot to be superficial, the characters one-dimensional, and the dialogue filled with obscure eighty year-old words like 'dames', 'dingus', 'gams', and 'gat'.

But 'Red Harvest' is one of the best (are there any bad ones?) novels from Dashiel Hammett, arguably the most artful if not prolific detective story writer of all time.

If you are reading this, then you are already a fan of the genre or you are branching out from your usual 'mystery' choice. You're looking for an entertaining read that won't dumb you down. You're hoping to stumble upon a lesser-known gem from a great mystery writer. Or maybe to find out why they say Hammett was so good. Well, you've found it.

I won't recount the story line--- plenty of other reviewers will do that. But I will tell you why you should buy it and read it.

I think 'Red Harvest' is a fine piece of American literature, one of the most perfect detective novels I've read.

The serpentine plot winds it way between the predictable and unpredictable, telling the story about one man against an entire town. In 2007 this might seem trite and overdone, but it was a fresh idea in 1927.

If violence and gunplay is your thing, you're in luck. Chapter 21 is entitled 'The Seventeenth Murder'.

The Obscure 1920's Gangster Dialogue Index is set to 'Low'. I don't want Edgar G, Cagney or Bogie pop into my mind while I'm forming my own mental image the character.

Dialogue and exposition are extremely well-written. Words tumble naturally from the pages like dice in a crapshoot.

In his exquisite portrait of Dinah Brand, the femme fatale, Hammett succeeds in the difficult task of capturing for his reader the essence of a physically imperfect woman who has perfected the art of attraction and allure, enchanting any man she wants.

Best of all things about `Red Harvest' is the wily Op himself. He appears a deceptively average guy: anonymous, middle-aged, average height, soft around the middle, receding hairline. But smart and tough as nails, he's not one to cross.

Sharp, brief and clear dialogue.......2006-10-27

Dashiell Hammett is the master of classic detective novels!!
In Red Harvest a detective is called in on a private case and his client is murdered in the company town of Personville (Poisonville by the locals) This is the classic detached, hard guy detective, who does what he does because he wants to finish the job he started. In this case it is to find out who has murdered the man that just may be the last honest man in town. In this company town, murders seem to be a dime a dozen, some just to mislead, others, just because. The dialogue is sharp and brief, yet clear as a diamond!! The women can be just as hard hearted as the men, with motives that reach only as far as their wallets.
This is another classic detective novel!!!

Red Harvest.......2006-08-27

Possibly the best book of its genre ever written. If you enjoy detective novels or westerns, you need to buy this book.

Average customer rating:

like an old movie
Fast, precise and great fun!!!
Hammett's best book; corruption you'll easily understand
Superb noir!
a rather tame effort by Hammett, which is a good thing..

The Glass Key
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Thin Man
Red Harvest
Woman in the Dark
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ASIN: 0679722629
Release Date: 1989-07-17

Book Description

Paul Madvig was a cheerfully corrupt ward-heeler who aspired to something better: the daughter of Senator Ralph Bancroft Henry, the heiress to a dynasty of political purebreds. Did he want her badly enough to commit murder? And if Madvig was innocent, which of his dozens of enemies was doing an awfully good job of framing him? Dashiell Hammett's tour de force of detective fiction combines an airtight plot, authentically venal characters, and writing of telegraphic crispness.

A one-time detective and a master of deft understatement, Dashiell Hammett virtually invented the hard-boiled crime novel. This classic Hammet work of detective fiction combines an airtight plot, authentically venal characters, and writing of telegraphic crispness.

Customer Reviews:

like an old movie.......2007-03-15

this was my first dip into the genre of early american murder mystery writers like hammett. i come away with the same feeling you do after watching an old black and white movie--nostaligic.

usually i don't read light books like this, but i took this on a plane trip for vacation. figured it would be attention grabbing easy reading. easy reading it was, but most certainly not a page turner. let's start with what it is not. it is not a who done it! there are not enough clues given to lead the experienced murder mystery reader to solve the case (to explain more would give away the plot). it is not a serial killer, blood and guts story that draws you in. it is not a psychological study of a murderer.

so what is it? it is a simple story of big city political corruption that leads to a murder which is solved, not by the police or a detective, but by a political confidant of one of the characters. never do you feel the excitment of a pending murder. never do you feel pending danger for one of the characters. the story just marches on to resolution.

i do however, recommend it. it is an interesting period piece. it would never fly today in the world of paterson and all the serial killer tales, but it is a prelude to those stories. maybe it simply shows the deterioration(or some may call it the move to realty) of american entertainment tastes. we see it in murder mysteries from hammett to paterson, in tv from happy days to almost any comedy show today, or in movies from the trend of "G/PG" rated to "R". maybe its this nostalgia piece that makes it interesting. if you like old movies, you will find this book refreshing.

Fast, precise and great fun!!!.......2006-10-27

Dashiell Hammett creates a world of authentic tough guys in The Glass Key.
This is the tale of what happens when people aspire to "love" in order to move up in the world. When a man is framed for murder, the question becomes, did he do it for love or did someone frame him using his love interests to make him a prime suspect.
As usual, the dialogue is fast paced, precise and as clear as filtered water. No words are wasted. No clarification is needed. The tough guy steps in and does what needs to be done. Generally this tends to include alcohol, tobacco and more than a few women!! This is another classic detective novel by the master, Dashiell Hammett!!

Hammett's best book; corruption you'll easily understand.......2006-10-13

We live in a time when campaign financing makes every politician a little bit crooked --- and when some politicians, out of greed or cynicism or outright stupidity, sell their souls for a few bags of gold. This abuse of power is depressing as hell. But it's not new. And in "The Glass Key," we see what political corruption looks like --- from the inside.

Ned Beaumont describes himself as "a gambler and a politician's hanger-on." That's too modest. He does most of the smart thinking for Paul Madvig, a behind-the-scenes power broker who controls large chunks of an unnamed city. Ned is no bruiser --- he's tall, tubercular and a sucker for a stiff drink --- but, on occasion, he's Madvig's enforcer. And there is much to enforce: a creep named Shad O'Rory is hoping his candidates will control the city after the upcoming election. Then there is the small matter of a Senator's son, found dead in street, right in the middle of Chapter One.

Everyone has an angle. The Senator needs Paul Madvig's support. Madvig wants to marry the Senator's daughter. Madvig's daughter was having an affair with the Senator's son. And Madvig looks like the boy's most likely killer. Got all that?

Beaumont persuades the District Attorney to give him limited authority to investigate the case. His aim, of course, is to slow that investigation down. Which he does by planting a key piece of evidence.

And that's not half of it. The newspaper publisher is heavily in debt. The mortgage on his plant is held by a bank that favors a candidate not in Madvig's stable. So what? As Beaumont points out, "He'll do what he's told to do and print what he's told to print."

Dirty stuff, all of it. Which isn't to say there's no hero. There is --- Ned Beaumont. How can that be? Because there's a thin vein of idealism in Ned. Because he has a code. Because, in the end, he is a gentleman. And because he recognizes that Madvig, though corrupt, has the city's interests at heart.

That's what makes "The Glass Key" so fascinating --- the way it presents a raw, ugly reality and then makes a kind of sense of it. Is moral order restored at the end? The title tells us it can't be; the glass key is a phrase from a young woman's dream. Yes, it can open a door. Once. Then it shatters. And the door can never be locked again. You don't need deep Freudian understanding to grasp that she's talking about the price of worldly knowledge --- that is, the end of innocence.

If "The Glass Key" doesn't seem familiar to today's newspaper readers, maybe it's because it's more atmospheric. Ned Beaumont's fingers are always wrapped around a dappled cigar. And some of the men wear both vests and hats. They make corruption almost stylish.

Superb noir!.......2006-02-14

Noir at its finest is not really black at all, it's really about 16 shades of gray. It's the blurring between those shades that separate the hero from villain in this story. Morals, scruples, and ethics are sub-par for all the characters here, a hallmark of noir, but the central character, Ned Beaumont, a shady gambler and right hand man of a political fixer, has at least one redeeming quality that renders him just that little bit more acceptable to the reader. He's no plaster saint, that's for sure, but he's loyal. Really loyal. And sometimes that's just as much a flaw as it is a virtue, at least in Ned's world it is. The book is written in third person but interestingly, Hammett never uses the omniscient voice: He never lets you inside the mind of any of the characters. What you know of them is only what they do and say, so sometimes the book feels a bit like it was written for the screen rather than a reading audience, but the truth is, Hammett creates a power there but has handed it over to the readers to use -- for better or worse. I really liked this book a lot, far more than 'The Thin Man,' and I did not expect that. The story and characters are complex but not stifling. The prose is spartan but not sterling, interesting but not gripping, so I gave it 4 stars rather than five. It's still better than 98% of the mysteries being published today.

a rather tame effort by Hammett, which is a good thing.........2005-03-09

'The Glass Key' is one of Dashiell Hammett's more controlled, accessible mysteries. The number of characters involved is limited, and the characterizations are uniformly excellent. The story, about political corruption and murder, is something like Hammett's earlier 'Red Harvest'. But 'Red Harvest' was a bit excessive in scope and as a result its plot became somewhat undecipherable after a while. Fortunately 'The Glass Key' doesn't degrade in that way ... in fact it gets better as the story progresses (complete with a good surprise ending).

Bottom line: a measured, competent effort by Dashiell Hammett. Not among his more famous works but certainly among the better.

The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels

Average customer rating:

Classic Adventures of the Indomitable Continental Op.
A great writer flexes his muscles
Novellas from a Private Detective
best hard-boiled collection
Hammett at his peak with these classic noir short stories

The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679722599
Release Date: 1989-07-17

Book Description

Short, thick-bodied, mulishly stubborn, and indifferent to physical pain, Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op was the prototype for generations of tough-guy detectives. He is also the hero of most of the nine stories in this volume. The Op's one enthusiasm is doing his job, and in The Big Knockover the jobs entail taking on a gang of modern-day freebooters, a vice-ridden hell's acre in the Arizona desert, and the bank job to end all bank jobs, along with such assorted grifters as Babe McCloor, Bluepoint Vance, Alphabet Shorty McCoy, and the Dis-and-Dat Kid.

Customer Reviews:

Classic Adventures of the Indomitable Continental Op........2004-07-12

"The Big Knockover" is a collection of 10 short stories, 9 of which originally appeared in "Black Mask" or "Mystery Stories" magazines, 1923-1929, and feature Dashiell Hammett's famous hard-nosed, always unnamed Continental Op detective. Several of these stories find the Continental Op out of his usual element in far-flung or exotic locales. "The King Business" takes place in a fictional Balkan nation of Muravia, of all places, and involves a political coup. "Corkscrew" is so named after an Arizona desert town, complete with cowboys, where the Op has been sent to break up an illegal immigration operation. The Op's adventures with the customary mode of transportation -horses- provides some comic relief. "Dead Yellow Women" takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown, where the mysteries of this immigrant culture prove confusing for the very American detective. I was surprised to see a Hammett detective in these unusual environments, but was entertained to find that there are thugs and grifters everywhere in Hammett's stories. The Op is never really out of sorts. He may not speak the language, but he's always at home in the criminal underworld. "The Gutting of Couffignal", "Fly Paper", "The Scorched Face", and "The Gatewood Caper" are more conventional Hammett, revolving around the debauchery of lowlifes and the dirty laundry of the wealthy. "The Big Knockover", after which the book is named, and "$106,000 Blood Money" are a two-parter about a spectacular caper in which an army of 150 crooks hold up an entire San Francisco city block and its aftermath. "Tulip" is the odd story out. It is the beginning of an unfinished novel that Hammett started late in life. It is unlike any work that Hammett published. The story concerns two older men, both educated and literate, both with criminal pasts. One is a writer who is working on a book. The other consciously rejected the literate lifestyle many years before, but is always anxious to tell his own story. It isn't very good. The style is tortuous and difficult to follow, the opposite of Hammett's typical lean, direct prose. "Tulip" appears to be an almost ridiculously overt allegory of the author's inner struggles with the value of words versus actions and the meaning of telling stories.

"The Big Knockover" was edited by Dashiell Hammett's longtime companion, the playwright Lillian Hellman, who wrote the introduction to the book in 1965, 5 years after Hammett died. She affectionately describes how they met, their relationship, how he died, and provides some insight into Hammett's personality from someone who knew him well. It's worth reading. "The Big Knockover" is a solid collection of Hammett stories featuring the wry, indomitable Continental Op. Dashiell Hammett was one of the 20th century's best short story writers, and, apart from "Tulip", which is a curiosity, this is classic Hammett and well worth reading whether you are new to Hammett or already a fan.

A great writer flexes his muscles.......2001-12-02

There are some great stories here. Let's discuss some of them in a minute. First, however . . .

During most of the 1920s and early 1930s, Dashiell Hammett was a compulsive writer and storyteller, possibly due to a personal need to make sense of his world and experiences. Later, he lost that compulsion. Following a brief prison term in the early 1950s (for his refusal to take part in the McCarthy-era witchhunts), he began to rediscover that earlier compulsion. Hence, the fragment of "Tulip," which he apparently intended as an semi-autobiographical novel. One wishes he could have lived long enough to complete more of it, at least.

Now to the meat of this short-story collection from his earlier days.

Hammett's most enduring character, the anonymous first-person narrating Continental Op, is the protagonist throughout. The stories vary widely, from the old-west (but not that old at the time of its writing) atmosphere of "Corkscrew" -- which would later serve as theme material for the novel "Red Harvest" -- to the comedy of "The Gatewood Caper"; there's the sinister undertones, interspersed with more comedic touches and a superb punchline at the end, of "Dead Yellow Women" as well as the total 'shaggy dog story' feel of "The Gutting of Couffignal" (in which everything apparently is intended to lead up to yet another punchline).

And then there's the title story itself, "The Big Knockover," perhaps the pre-eminent 'caper story' of all time: a carefully planned and executed bank robbery which falls awry in a trail of double-cross and deduction, yet which leaves its protagonist at the end to wryly remark (perhaps echoing Hammett's sentiments?): "What a life!"

Note: Subsequent editions of this collection sometimes include "$106,000 Blood Money," which Hammett ill-advisedly wrote as a sequel to "The Big Knockover." Good as this second tale may be, I believe it could have been written just as easily -- and to better effect -- as an independent story. (There is some evidence that Hammett at one point thought of combining the two as a novel.) I much prefer to leave "Knockover" on its own and let it end there, without the more-than-slightly unsatisfactory resolution of "$106,000 Blood Money."

Each story in this collection shines on its own and reveals facets of Hammett's innate genius.

Oh, yeah: There's also a reminiscince by playwright Lillian Hellman, which may or may not have any bearing upon the actual Dashiell Hammett. Decide for yourself.

Novellas from a Private Detective.......2001-08-14

These stories were written in the 1920s. If you liked his short stories and novels, you will want to read this book. "Corkscrew" is a short version of "Red Harvest" - get one gang to attack another in order to eliminate both and benefit a third group. "Dead Yellow Women" is about a scheme to provide cover for smuggling. Some things never change! "Tulip" was written in the 1950s, is partly autobiographical, and different from the other stories; not as good, in my opinion. The monetary figures from 80 years ago are way out of date!

Some of these stories appear to be similar to the turmoil in early 16th Century Italy. Could a Cesare Borgia have planned the "The Big Knockover"? In "$106,000 Blood Money" the Continental Op arranges the death of a traitorous detective, and then the bounty hunter who would claim this reward (leading to a nice bonus later?).

Why have detective stories gone out of fashion after the 1950s? Could a form of censorship be responsible for this (to hide the actions of these secret agents of the rich and powerful)? Are the "James Bond" stories an updated version of the private detective stories? Or have none-fiction writings become more popular since then ("The Invisible Government")?

best hard-boiled collection.......2001-07-10

Dashiell Hammett's _The Big Knockover_ is a wonderful collection of stories by the master of the crime novel himself. The introduction by Lillian Hellman gives the reader excellent insight into her relationship with Hammett, as well as a glimpse of the author. For Hammett fans, the book is nearly worth the price for Hellman's introduction alone.

This collection is better than his Maltese Falcon, all the Sam Spade, and the Thin Man stories. Among Hammett's writings, the only novel to equal this collection, in my mind, is _Red Harvest_.

Stories in this book range from short to near-novella length. Topics range from the very typical Hammett plot (young woman is missing, wealthy dad pays for her return)of "The Gatewood Caper" to the offbeat noir-Western "Corkscrew" to the looting of an entire island ("The Looting of Couffignal").

The one "straight" story in the bunch, not a crime story at all, is "Tulip," published as a fragment. As it is, it doesn't pull much weight. To call the plot meandering would be generous.

The title story is a classic. A big bank-robbery caper starts looking bizarre when, days later, roomsful of America's highest profile crooks start turning up dead.

One bad story doesn't ruin the whole bunch. If you're a fan of Hammett's other books, give _The Big Knockover_ a chance.

ken32

Hammett at his peak with these classic noir short stories.......2001-04-13

A short story writer to rival O'Henry (master of the ironic twist), the man who quietly escorted detective fiction from the pulp stands to the literature shelves hits his stride with these noir classics. While I would still vote for Raymond Chandler as my all-time noir favorite, I have to admit Hammett's short stories in this collection surpass even Chandler's Pre-Marlowe Black Mask stories. An inredible and absorbing display of imagination, narrative ability, and just plain edge-of-your-seat storytelling mastery.

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