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.
Amazon.com
Like the Red Panda is debut author Andrea Seigel's brutal answer to the throngs of Chick Lit novels that have inundated book clubs and influenced the big screen over the past decade. Stella Parrish, Seigel's tragic heroine, is 17, extremely wise beyond her years, completely alienated from her peers and her foster family, and determined to kill herself before she arrives at Princeton's gates in the fall. Seigel's task here is difficult--she's created a character of extraordinary depth, given her an unpleasant (at best) mission, and attempted to make her amusing and interesting, all at the same time. In many ways, the author's success should be widely applauded, even if she falls short on occasion.
Like the Red Panda enjoys its greatest success when Stella is commenting on the people around her. Her wry observations about her cranky old grandfather, her pot-smoking classmates in AP English, and her brilliant, unmotivated drug-dealing ex-boyfriend paint an equally amusing and insightful portrait of suburban life in America. When describing the temple-going practices of her jumpy and awkward foster parents, Stella explains that services are held on Sunday morning instead of Saturday, "mostly so everyone could be on the same worship schedule as their Christian friends. This benefited cross-religion plan-making on the weekends." When Seigel strays from witty observations like these, the novel has a tendency to lose its quirky appeal and simply becomes a tale of disenchanted youth. Thankfully, Like the Red Panda delivers more laughs than tears, and rewards readers with a unique blend of one-part teenage angst mixed with two-parts comedic wit. --Gisele Toueg
Book Description
Stella Parrish is seventeen, attractive, smart, deeply alienated, and unable to countenance life's absurdities. She is not nihilistic; she is prematurely exhausted. Since her parents OD'd on designer drugs when she was eleven, she has lived with well-meaning but inexperienced foster parents, while her grandfather, her only living relative, tries ever more ingenious ways of committing suicide in his retirement home. Here are the last two weeks of Stella's senior year in Orange County, California: the intensive AP final exams; the childish, celebratory trips; the totemic importance attached to graduation. Beneath Stella's mordantly funny take on her life is the decisiveness with which she disengages from it, planting clues and providing explanations for those who will try to understand the act she is about to commit. With perfect pitch, remarkable wit, and a spare, vivid prose, Stella turns her farewell to suburbia into a wry philosophical inquiry.
Customer Reviews:
Haunting and scary...........2007-03-16
I've always been an optimist, despite experiences with anxiety and depression. I've also always believed that when people are incurably sick they should have the right to end their lives the way they want, when they want. I'd never really thought about people that were mentally ill, but after reading this book I was stunned and speechless. If the main character where my friend I would have no idea what to say or do. The author does such a frighteningly good job of conveying the emptiness and inability to attach to anyone or anything that I could think of no other way for the book to end. I kept waiting for something to change, some magic intervention and it didn't come. And although I was sad, I was also profoundly respectful of an author that could not only make me feel for this character but didn't insult the book with a slap-dash happy ending. I didn't see this book coming. It's not really about depression, it's about meaninglessness. This book took a while to shake off.
So good I think I have a crush on the author........2005-12-14
Seigel's debut novel, Like the Red Panda, is written journal-style: a brilliant Princeton-bound high school senior attempting to explain why she is going to commit suicide. What can I say about this young author's first book other than "Wow." She takes on a heavy topic (or really, a number of them, as the protagonist has been orphaned, is friendless, lives a life that is basically invisibly to her odd foster parents, and dates a drug dealer) and without cheating the subject matter, keeps the read (for the most part) light and funny. Her writing is skillful and smart but unpretentious. I heard the term chick-lit thrown about as I read reviews for this novel -- it is no such thing. It is a moving coming-of-age novel, and, put simply, a worthy read.
Oh yeah, one final note: A couple of people have criticized the novel as basically a Catcher In The Rye rip-off. This is, in a word, stupid. Salinger's novel hits so many readers because the theme is so universal. How then can it be surprising that he has not been the only author to tackle that theme? Is Salinger (who incidentally IS one of my favorite authors) to have the final word on teen angst? Did he tackle the topic so thoroughly and definitively that there is nothing left to say? Of course not. Such a suggestion is absurd. Sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but some opinions are better left unheard. Seigel's take on the theme is both moving and entertaining.
Lingers in your mind.......2005-11-17
I debated about reading this novel because I knew it dealt with suicide and that's not my favorite topic to read about. But I read this anyway and I'm glad I did.
The book is written in diary form, with Stella leaving it behind as her last memories of the world when she kills herself. She didn't seem that suicidal but rather bored with her life and wanting to do something that left behind a legacy. That made reading this all the more interesting, because she wasn't the typical depressed teen.
Each day she writes is filled with amusing observations and memories about the world around her and such insightful writing. I could not put this book down because it was written so well!! I wanted to know everything - will she kill herself? what will happen with the one gil who's becoming her friend? what's up with the guy she's sort of dating?
I know this book is darker than most - it's not candy-coated chick lit, but the writing is so much depper and so much more insightful that any of those books. I will be recommending this to everyone, and I'll have to buy the author's next book when it comes out!
andrea rules.......2005-08-24
I wish this book had been around when I was a teenager. Funny and sad all at once-- much like my own teenage years. Like the Red Panda is brilliant in its ability to address complex issue with simple, intelligent and wry prose. So yeah, buy the book, it's good.
Reflections on a coming of age story.......2005-03-28
Many authors have tackled the coming of age story from various angles. Catcher in the Rye and The Adventures Huckleberry Finn spring instantly to mind, although your milage may vary. Unfortunately, the coming of age genre -- no matter how well crafted an individual story may be -- tends to become somewhat played out and predictable. The characters all seem to sucessfully overcome the problems of childhood, come to fundamental realizations about their own lives, accept responsibility, and move on to the greener pastures of adulthood. In Like the Red Panda, Seigel explores the darker possibilities. Stella (Seigel's main character) may be brilliant, funny and talented; but she just doesn't get it. Finding nothing but emptiness in her personal accomplishments, dysfunctional family, hollow love life, and future prospects, Stella decides to end it all. Throughout the book, one feels that she might snap out of her funk. Through Stella's intimate encounters, academic achievments, newfound friendship, and opportunities to bond with her alienated family, Seigel leaves the reader with a feeling that Stella is always just on the cusp of abandoning her suicidal ambition to persue a happy and productive future. Seigel goes so far as to provide a stark contrast in the form of Ainsley -- a former outcast and shadow who blossoms as her highschool days come to an end. However, this book's brilliance is that it deviates from the conventional coming of age tales by showing us that the journey from child to adult is indeed perilous. Stella ultimately abandons her promising future, refuses to accept responsibility, and is consumed by the problems of her troubled past. Although Like the Red Panda falters in places (the ending in particular seems somehow forced), it is entertaining, witty, and, above all, provides a much needed counter-point to all the Holden Caulfields scattered across the literary landscape.
Average customer rating:
- Bad Blood Pours in Poisonville [T]
- CLEANING UP DODGE
- Mr. Hammet
- 'Harvest' this high quality read from a master of the detective genre.
- Sharp, brief and clear dialogue
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Red Harvest
Dashiell Hammett
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Thin Man
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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:
Bad Blood Pours in Poisonville [T].......2007-07-01
Some novelists are great in their genre. Some novelists create a genre. In many respects, this book exemplifies the birth of the genre referred to as the American crime novel - one which Raymond Chandler said ". . . took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley. . . ." And, oh how from-the-street this novel is.
This novel started a critically acclaimed writing streak for Hammet - 1929 ("Red Harvest"and "The Dain Curse"), 1930 ("The Maltese Falcon"), and 1931 ("The Glass Key"). Hollywood was right behind the publishers as they produced his books to film almost as soon as the print dried on the second printing: 1930 ("Roadhouse Nights" based on "Red Harvest), 1931 ("Maltese Falcon" ) and 1935 ("Thin Man" and 5 other movies to follow with the Thin Man theme.)
Hammett was hot. Maybe the hottest commodity in print and screen the first five years of the 1930's. Then in 1936 he secretly joins the Communist Party and you can guess the rest.
This book reviews many of his personal experiences. At 31, he became a private detective (Pinkerton Agency) and the major character of this book is a 190-pound 5'6" solidly built unnamed character who works for a similar agency. He is called an Op. And, his "Old Man" sends him to Personville which is affectionately referred to as Poisonvile - dank and mysterious, it lost its innocence when old man Willsson hired Italian goons as union busters to preserve his bottom line for his many capitalistic ventures. After they did their dirty business, they stayed and the old man could not live as he had before - in total control of the city.
When the Op is shot at by goons and cops, he decides that even though his business is over, he will stay and earn $10,000 while making himself a Poisonville regular. Thereafter, 24 bad people are murdered - cleaning the streets of the bad blood - and the worst injury suffered by the Op is a burn. Good conquers all, or mostly all. The Op meant what he said, and said what he meant, he hated the town 100%.
Hammett, probably from having to gumshoe streets following leads for the Pinkerton Agency, understood American vernacular. Implementing the same created his "style" which probably was not consciously done. But, it was artistic. And, this artistry is purely Americana. American vernacular was new in literature - something which was also brought to readers by another hot commodity of the 1930's - Ernest Hemingway.
His curt and precise statements, dialogue, and great descriptions of the physical appearances of characters are Hammett's best weapons. And, this is one of his best books - probably only exceeded by "Maltese Falcon." It seems only a shame that he could not produce more of these novels
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!!!
Book Description
Previously only available serialized over seven issues of The Armchair Detective magazine, this examination is the single most influential book-length analysis of Dashiell Hammett’s novels. Spanning all sections of his career, the book discusses five novels: The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, The Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest, and The Thin Man. Detailed analysis shows how the author and his work changed over time. Each novel is discussed in its own chapter with comparative criticism, and there is a list of resources for further reading and research. Additionally, this compiled text includes a new chapter in which the author discusses the impact Hammett has had on his own life.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointed. Here's why:.......2007-10-01
I love Hammett, and I think Thompson has some valid insights, but I'm kind of disappointed with this book. But it depends. If I were a regular reader of "detective fiction" (i.e., if Hammett didn't happen to interest me intellectually, and if I read any other detective fiction with arbitrary delight), I might have actually loved this book. So don't base your judgment entirely on what I have to say about this book.
But what I will say is this: as a student of philosophy and English literature, and as someone who has read some literary criticism in his day, I will say this book is disappointing. Part of the problem is, Mr. Thompson tries to cover way too much. What I mean is this: he takes you through the novels entire. What he might have done is taken a more specific theme and found the places in the novels that fit with that theme. What you need, in that case, is not the entire novels: you need only "pieces" of each novel, and more speculation, more imagination. Not explication. The assumption should be that your reader is reading you because they've already read the author's books already.
For a good example of what I mean, read the Introduction to THE CONTINENTAL OP collection by Steven Marcus. His theory of the truth/fiction dichotomy in Hammett is very fruitful, and very short.
This book is advertised as "in-depth" and "influential." I don't know how influential it has been, as I have not read ALL the criticism on Hammett over the past forty years. But I really don't think it is "in-depth": it's more of an introduction.
There really is, I think, too much focus out there on "Hammett's Development As A Writer." To HELL with his "development"! He was a writer; that is all. There is no "development": everything he wrote was good. He might have changed over the years, sure. But it's not as though he started out as a hack writer and ended up as a brilliant novelist in the end. The fact of the matter is that Hammett was able to say in very few words what it takes other writers pages and pages and pages to say. It is simply more difficult to write something short than it is to write something long. This may be especially true of detective fiction. For instance, why is it that we have so little of Hammett and Chandler, but they are still considered the best? Whereas we have volume after volume of Parker, Spillane, Burke, Grafton, etc., and don't seem to be an "Influence" on anyone.
But by all means, if you want a good introduction to Hammett's worldview, or if you're a book collector, or if you are really unfamiliar with literary analysis, you might love this book.
But I wouldn't read a mediocre book on Hammett for the same reason I wouldn't read a mediocre book on Shakespeare or Aristotle.
Average customer rating:
- a great collection
- Classic Hammett
- A classic for every home library
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The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest (Everyman's Library)
Dashiell Hammett , and
Robert Polito
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The Big Sleep; Farewell, My Lovely; The High Window (Everyman's Library)
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ASIN: 0375411259
Release Date: 2000-12-05 |
Book Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
The three classic novels published here in one volume are rich with the crisp prose, subtle characters, and intricate plots that made Dashiell Hammett one of the most admired writers of the twentieth century.
A one-time detective and a master of deft understatement, Hammett virtually invented the hard-boiled crime novel. In The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade, a private eye with his own solitary code of ethics, tangles with a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. The Thin Man introduces Hammett's wittiest creations, Nick and Nora Charles, who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. And in Red Harvest, Hammett's anonymous tough-guy detective, the Continental Op, takes on the entire town of Poisonville in a deadly war against corruption.
"Dashiell Hammett is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer."—Boston Globe
”Hammett was spare, hard-boiled, but he did over and over what only the best writers can ever do. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.”—Raymond Chandler
”Hammett’s prose was clean and entirely unique. His characters were as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction.”—The New York Times
”As a novelist of realistic intrigue, Hammett was unsurpassed in his own or any time.”—Ross Macdonald
”Dashiell Hammett’s dialogues can be compared only with the best in Hemingway.”—André Gide
”Hammett is one of the best contemporary American writers.”—Gertrude Stein
Customer Reviews:
a great collection.......2005-01-02
The Maltese Falcon is a masterpiece. I love Red Harvest as well. The Thin Man isn't quite as good, but it's a lot of fun. All in all, reading this collection is a great way to spend a rainy weekend as I discovered.
Classic Hammett.......2004-01-23
Dashiell Hammett is best known as the man who wrote "Maltese Falcon," the classic noir mystery behind the classic noir film. That book is included here, along with the confusing "Red Harvest" and magnificent, polished "Thin Man," two other crime novels by Hammett.
The mysterious "Maltese Falcon" is at the center of international intrigue -- and murder. Cynical Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer are hired by a beautiful, seemingly helpless woman to find a man who she says has run off with her sister. Not only is the woman lying, but someone kills Archer. A slimy fop, a cultured gangster, and a breathy femme fatale are all in the same web of crime and murder, centered on a bejewelled bird called the Maltese Falcon.
"Red Harvest" is the full-length novel introduction of the cool-as-ice Continental Op. He travels to Personville (or "Poisonville," depending on your accent) to meet a client. Except the client has just been murdered. Rather than go home to San Francisco, the Continental Op meets the dead man's wealthy father, and begins a one-man battle against the vicious gangsters who control Personville. But the death and mayhem draw him in, threatening his life as he struggles to stay afloat.
"The Thin Man" was Hammett's last and lightest novel. Nick and Nora Charles are a wealthy couple who have a weird kind of compatibility, but ex-private-eye Nick is through with crime solving. Or so he thinks. One day when Nick is out drinking, he encounters young Dorothy Wynant, daughter of peculiar inventor Clyde Wynant. Her dad has vanished, and soon his secretary/mistress is found dead. Nick finds himself sucked unwillingly into a sordid, messy crime that will leave more murdered bodies behind it.
This collection shows the unevenness of Hammett's writing at times. "Maltese Falcon" and "Thin Man" are complicated and polished, while "Red Harvest" is a dense mass of shootings, conspiracies and mysterious crimes. What they all have in common is tense, sparse writing, and hardened, cynical anti-heroes who are surrounded by other ambiguous characters.
The three-pack of "The Maltese Falcon," "The Thin Man," and "Red Harvest" is a good way to introduce yourself to Hammett's gritty, engrossing crime novels. Highly recommended.
A classic for every home library.......2000-12-30
My two favorites in this collection are The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon. I love these hard-boiled detective novels doubly for their sheer entertainment and their place in history. If you want a fascinating read to go allong with this collection, get The Perfect Murder: A Study In Detection by David Lehman. It will clue you into these novels and life. These classic American Novels by Hammett are about to explode in historical research as these novels create an important link in America from WWII to our morality.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating Mysteries.......2001-03-16
Dashiell Hammett's novels have fascinating mystery plots and the essential elements of film noir: dangerous dames, wise-cracking "ops" (= operative = P.I.), cagey crime orgasnisers, and trigger-happy "muggs".
Hammett's novels include The Maltese Falcon (#3) and The Thin Man(#5), which are great films but they are missing some of the intrigue of the real stories. For instance, there's another angle of Sam Spade involving Iva Archer that doesn't quite make it to the film version . . . .
The Red Harvest (#1) reveals shocking corruption in city politics as the Continental Op (literally) wades through bootleg liquor and tries to keep track of the soaring body count.
The Dain Curse (#2) is a confusing compound of drug use, a religious cult, and a family's vicious criminal record. It isn't a neat, fictionalised detective story, but rather the slough of deceit Hammett must have seen while working for Pinkerton.
The Glass Key (#4) also deals with city-level political corruption, but there's another message: think of trying to use a glass key . . . .
When fortifying myself for a six hour layover and a trans-Atlantic flight, I stumbled upon this book quite by accident, but I couldn't have made a better choice. Hammett's novels make excellent reading: interesting plots, clever wording and some of those "lines" film noir can't do without. I can't resist giving an example "line" (from The Glass Key):
"'A copper found you crawling on all fours up the middle of Colman Street at three in the morning leaving a trail of blood behind you.'
'I think of funny things to do,' Ned Beaumont said."
Average customer rating:
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Out of the Red Shadow: A Novel (Hidden Harvest)
Anne De Graaf
Manufacturer: Bethany House Publishers
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ASIN: 1556616201 |
Book Description
"Anne de Graaf is a consummate storyteller, taking us far beyond our comfort zones to places in the world and places in our hearts where we've not traveled before."
Liz Custis Higgs, author of Mixed Signals
When the Nazis retreated from postwar Poland, the Soviets only spread the existing terror as Stalinism entrenched itself. The Piekarz family has survived the crushing weight of persecution, and Piotr Piekarz is now a leader among the Solidarity movement in Gdansk, helping to lead the fight against the government during martial law. Wanted by the secret police, he is finally arrested and thrown into prison.
Piotr's nephew Tomasz, drawn by the promise of Western materialism, runs away to Berlin and ends up living in desperate conditions on the streets. His return to Poland and involvement in a riot against the communists leads to a dramatic confrontation with his grandfather, the American spy, Jacek. Finally, Jacek must come to terms with the legion of ghosts that haunt his past and torment his life.
Can a man who has betrayed himself with good intentions find redemption through coming to understand what is truly important? Will a family's heritage of enduring faith and love be enough to heal the scars they did not mean to inflict on their children, along with the scars of a repressive government?
"Anne de Graaf has an extraordinary gift. She SEES. Where others see only historical data, Anne sees a tapestry. She sees glimmers of hope in broken hearts. She sees eternal truth within a story begging to be told. And what the heart sees, it never forgets."
Books:
- Corsarios de Levante (Las Aventuras Del Capitan Alatriste)
- Cruel As the Grave: A Medieval Mystery
- Curriculum Webs: Weaving the Web into Teaching and Learning (2nd Edition)
- Days of Our Lives: A Complete History of the Long-Running Soap Opera
- Dead in the Water: A Novel
- Dead in the Water: A Novel
- Dead Ringer
- Deadly Illusions (Francesca Cahill Novels)
- Early Autumn
- El Codigo Da Vinci / The Da Vinci Code
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World
- Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!, The
- House Beautiful the Designs of William E. Poole: 70 Classic House Plans in the Southern Tradition
- Green Grass, Running Water
- Illustrating Nature: Right-Brain Art in a Left-Brain World
- Oracle E-Business Suite Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management
- Murder Can Mess Up Your Mascara: A Desiree Shapiro Mystery
- The Gothic Cathedral: The Architecture of the Great Church 1130-1530
- Hearst Castle: The Biography of a Country House
- When Last I Died
Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)
Crime Stories and Other Writings (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)
