Title: Novels (Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man)
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.
Subjects: American Detective and mystery stories, Private investigators, Translations into Russian, Detective and mystery stories, American, Open Library Staff Picks, Conto, Literatura norte-americana, United States, Fiction, Hammett, dashiell, 1894-1961, Nora Charles (Fictitious character), Nick Charles (Fictitious character), Sam Spade (Fictitious character), Continental Op (Fictitious character), American fiction (fictional works by one author)
Places: United States