Novels

By Dashiell Hammett

Subjects: Nora Charles (Fictitious character), Sam Spade (Fictitious character), Open Library Staff Picks, Hammett, dashiell, 1894-1961, American Detective and mystery stories, Conto, Nick Charles (Fictitious character), Literatura norte-americana, United States, Fiction, Continental Op (Fictitious character), Translations into Russian, Detective and mystery stories, American, Private investigators

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.