Dashiell Hammett is a wonderful writer.
This is the third book I have read of his, and though I feel it was the least
strong and found it boring at times, he
still has a charm that I cannot deny turns me on. In the same way Don Draper’s
charm turns people on, if you follow me.
His stories are typically
prohibition era private-eye or consultant detective solving a murder mystery or
busting up a crime ring. The Maltese Falcon was my introduction to him,
and featured a great detective who did not trust anyone trying to find a missing
treasure, which is a falcon of gold from Malta, if you can believe it. The hero
is a highly intuitive, rough and stoic chauvinist who openly admits to not
trusting or loving anyone and this seems to always work to his advantage in
solving crimes. Red Harvest was another great book where a man who
essentially owns a town with his wealth is seeing it slip away after the murder
of his son, so he hires a private-eye, the best in the business, to come set
the town aright. The private-eye does actually very little, but learns from
everyone by being agreeable, receptive, and working “on their side” and
eventually, the 4 different crime-rings are at full on war with each other and
the hero watches the town destroy itself. It is the only way to purge the town
of the evils that plague it. It is very violent and very clever.
This book, though very much lacking
in terms of action (only one scene where the protagonist is shot and wounded),
is also very clever and features a detective carved from the same block as the
other two stories. Only difference is this guy is married, and the sexual
tension between he, his wife, and each partner’s friends-of-the-opposite-sex is
really entertaining to me. Young girls and mature women alike all seem to love Nick
Charles, and men off all different backgrounds in the story cannot seem to get
enough of his wife Nora. And because they are constantly detecting, they each
flirt back incessantly. I think it is a fun new angle from the types of
characters I am familiar with through Hammettt’s stories.
The plot of this one is pretty
basic: lover of an inventor is murdered. Ex-wife and her family, who have
worked with the vacationing, retired, Nick Charles in the past, are expected to
be involved. The current detective on the case ends up using Nick as a consultant
of sorts. And even though Nick wants nothing more than to refrain from getting
involved, he just cannot help it. The people in the Wynant family are all great
characters: the eccentric inventor ; the lying, harsh and violent
cougar-attractive mother; the equally as dangerous and untrustworthy yet
incredibly beautiful daughter; the strange detective-hopeful son with a knack
for spying on everyone; and the wife’s new husband and step-father to the
children, supposed Frenchman Chris
Jorgensen.
Everyone is hiding something and
Nick and Nora trust nobody. Instead, their method of solving this murder is to
visit speakeasies and hose down the degenerate low-class criminals with alcohol
and flirtatious charisma to get’em talking. In typical Hammett fashion, very few
pages remain when the crime is still unsolved, but without giving anything away
the hero pretty much has a final grasp of what is going on here. Then, as news
unfolds, his chess pieces in place, he is able to kick the gate open on the
whole thing and everyone goes home no longer confused but still very
uncomfortable.
I do believe it to be the weakest of
the 3 I have read of his, but refuse to back down on recommending Hammett as a
great American all-around detective novel badass. I would suggest that anyone
with any desire for those types of stories should start with the Maltese Falcon and then try out the
less-clever-yet-much-more-violent Red
Harvest.
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