The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest

Dashiell Hammett was born in Maryland in the last decade of the nineteenth century. He was a Pinkerton detective; joined the Communist party and was the lover of playwright Lillian Hellman. He also, and most notably, was along with James M.Cain and Raymond Chandler one of America's greatest authors of hard boiled detective fiction in the late 1920s and 1930s. Everyman has produced a handsome volume of three of the author's most famous tales. The novels are:Red Harvest-My personal least favorite of this trio of novels. It is a wild shoot up em up novel dealing with the efforts of an anonymous middle aged detective named the Continental Op (the agency which employs him) to clean up a sleazy Cailfornia town of 40,000. The tough guy is bent on reforming the town. Before the action ends there are over 20 murders in the short novels. The book is a mess of characters who speak in a crime world argot and use profane slang. So-so!The Thin Man stars the delightful Nick Charles and his wisecracking wife Nora. The pair were incarnated in a series of memorable MGM films starring William Powell and Myrna Low as the booze loving married couple with a dog named Asta. In "The Thin Man" Charles seeks to discover the whereabouts of an inventor whose girl friend turns up dead. Along the way we meet the eccentric members of the Wyngard family. The action occurs in New York City and is filled with colorful Damon Runyonesque types as well as wealthy New Yorkers. The plot is incredibly complicated! What keeps this book alive eighty years after it was published is the witty way in which the tale is told.The Maltese Falcon-I consider this to be the best of the three novels in this collection! Everyone knows the novel was turned into a classic film noir film directed by John Huston (in his directorial debut) and starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade and Mary Astor as Miss O'Shaugnessy. The plot centers around a missiing Maltese Falcon which Mr. Gutman, Joel Cairo and others are seeking to discover. Murder quickly ensues in this tale of gritty greed and betrayal. This is one of the best private investigator novels ever written. The movie closely follows the language and plot of the book. Hammett created two of the greatest detectives in fiction in Sam Spade and Nick Charles. His books have become classics and are well worth reading.

I read this collection of three short novels by virtue of its inclusion in the list of 100 Essential books in Everyman's Library. The novels included in this book are The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man and Red Harvest.My first impression, upon reading the first 50 pages of The Maltese Falcon, the first novel in the collection was that it contained every stereotype you can imagine in a book involving private eyes, bad guys and damsels in distress. Then it occurred to me: This was the original; the first of what later became a genre. Until this was written, there were no Sam Spades, or cunning molls, or gun wielding gangsters (at least in contemporary fiction). Nevertheless, after an additional 70 years of such stories and treatments, it can't help but come across as tired and overdone. Also, having seen the movie version, it is impossible to read the book without picturing Humphrey Bogart as the quintessential cigarette smoking, whiskey drinking, bad guy thumping, wise cracking private detective that became the model for all future private detectives. The underlying story is completely secondary to the characters in the novel, from the Peter Lorre portrayed, effeminate, Middle Eastern bad guy (slapped around by Sam Spade, as you might imagine) to the fat, refined Turkish antique collector. I can imagine the sensation that this work caused upon its release over 75 years ago.The second story, The Thin Man, is of the same Noir genre. Nick Charles, a retired private investigator is unwillingly pulled into a murder investigation. Again, this is very much a character driven work. The adults in this novel seem to drink heavily, around the clock. Waking in the middle of the night to get a drink of whiskey and staying out until the mid-morning hours, frequenting dinner parties and speak easies. Very similar in style and character development to The Maltese Falcon, as is the final book in the trio, Red Harvest.In Red Harvest, a San Francisco private detective is hired by a newspaper editor in the town of Personville (known as Poisonville). Upon arrival into town, the detective's client is murdered. Instead of returning to San Francisco, the detective stays, and is pulled into a rat's nest of conflicting power struggles and gang feuds, with frequent gunplay and criminal activity of various sorts. The detective cleverly plays all sides against the others, though to what benefit it is hard to imagine, as he has already been paid. In any event, if you liked the first two stories, you'll certainly like this one as well, the template and characters are virtually indistinguishable.In rating these works, I'm faced with much the same dilemma as when I read William Gibson's science fiction classic, Neuromancer, a ground breaking work decades ahead of its time, which has necessarily been diminished by the passage of time and the advent of much of the technology forecast in the novel. Read at the time of its release, it must have been truly original and spellbinding. Read thirty years later, it is nothing special. The same can be said for Hammett's work. In the 30s and 40s, this must have been a breath of fresh air, now, in light of the succeeding eighty years, it is hackneyed and trite. It deserves every accolade it has garnered, as the foundation for a genre of literature and film that has produced such classics as Chinatown. As a present day reading experience however, three stars is generous.

As books go, this one is quite attractive, especially without the dust jacket. It is printed and bound in Germany. This book contains three of Hammett's most famous novels, and is therefore a better bargain than buying them individually.The Library of America also publishes a Dashiell Hammett collection that contains five novels, and is therefore more expensive. However, it is still a better bargain than buying them individually, and it is printed in the United States. It too is a very handsome edition.If you are a Hammett fan, go with the Library of America and you will get more bang for your buck.If, like myself, you are just interested in reading a few of Hammett's more famous works, go with this version and save a few dollars.However, I would not recommend buying the paperbacks individually, the cost is too high and the books lack the quality of these hardbound editions.

This book was in great shape, as described and arrived right on time with a kind thank you note from the vendor. Very classy.

Of course I am familiar with the movie versions of these stories, but Dashiell Hammett's writing is much darker and grittier than what they could portray in the movies of the day with an antagonist much more complex.

Great book, but the quality of the Kindle edition is so poor it is very difficult to read.

There is a reason why this book is a classic and the publisher. as always, creates a wonderful hardcover classic at a tremendously affordable price.

The Maltese Falcon is one of my all-time favorite books. The other two are also enjoyable reads; this edition (Everyman's Library) is wonderful.

Three enduring classics of Hammett. Each stands up well. Fun now to go back to the Falcon and Thin Man movies!

I had read the copy from my local library, and wanted the book. This book will have a prominent place in my personal library.

Good book. Great value. All classic omnibus of his stories. Perfect condition. Excellent service and early delivery.