Dashiell Hammett
Subtitle: five complete novels.
Edition: Avenel 1980 ed.
Publisher: Avenel Books; distributed by Crown Publishers
Published: 1980
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 726
Subjects: Detective and mystery stories, American
Description: 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.
Notes: Reprint of the ed. published by Knopf, New York, under title: The novels of Dashiell Hammett.
Table of contents: title: Red harvest.; title: The Dain curse.; title: The Maltese falcon.; title: The glass key.; title: The thin man.