Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest

A couple weeks ago, if you'd asked me about The Maltese Falcon I might have said something along the lines of, "Oh yeah...that sounds familiar. Isn't it a book? Maybe a movie?" Where have I been?

Last week, I grabbed this book on my way to the library checkout counter, a volume with three Dashiell Hammett novels: The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest.

I finished Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading (Maureen Corrigan) a couple days after last week's book post. (Wonderful husband never did say, "Gee, honey, whatcha reading?" Drat.) Corrigan raves about Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, and the impact of detective fiction on her life. I had to walk right past the mystery section to get to the counter (to return a book and to deliver a goody plate filled with cookies, bookmarks, and a card created by the ladies and gents for the wonderful librarians-- the crabby librarian smiled!). Serendipity-- there it was, the very three Dashiell Hammett novels Corrigan discusses in her book, all in one volume. I also picked up a book of stories by Ruth Rendell, Bloodlines: Long and Short Stories, which was excellent. (I wrote about several Rendell novels here.)

Dashiell Hammett proved to be just the ticket for reading during a busy holiday. I devoured these books, staying up way too late reading. Good solid wisecracking-gumshoe tales all, complete with shifty characters, corrupt police, pretty dames, lots of action, and good-old-fashioned whodunnit. The plot and characters are engaging, fast-paced, and fun to read. The dialogue is fantastic.

The Maltese Falcon is the story of Sam Spade's encounter with a beautiful young woman who pulls him into a complicated plot involving a priceless statue, lots of money, tangles with the police and with some bad guys, and murders to boot. The strands of this tangled web unfold perfectly as Spade tries to figure out what the heck is going on, who he can (and can't) trust, and whether or not he's going to make it through the whole mess alive.

The Thin Man, also a movie (I may just send wonderful husband on a trip to the video store) features retired detective Nick Charles and his charming wife Nora. A completely screwed-up family, former aquaintances of Nick's, pull him into a murder mystery that begins with the murder of young Dorothy's father's secretary. I fell in love with Nick and Nora. Absolutely charming, Nick's cynicism is balanced by Nora's wide-eyed enthusiasm. Another quick-paced, wise-cracking, twisting-turning thriller.

Red Harvest was a bit different, though still well-written and action-packed. Told in the first person, the story centers around a private eye sent to "Poisonville," a city overtaken by the criminal element. Everyone is in everyone else's back pocket. There are no good guys. Even the main character-- he does the job he's paid to do, ridding the city of the criminals, but he's definitely an ends-justify-the-means kind of a guy. A lot of bloodshed in this one.

Here's the danger in reading one of these three novels in one volume deals: By the third novel I'm tired. I'm ready for a change no matter how well the books are written. But even though I've finished a novel in the volume, it just doesn't feel as though I'm really finished because I haven't read the last page of the book itself. So I plug on. I liked Red Harvest but I'll admit I skimmed through some of the gunfights near the end. (Sometimes I fast-forward through those never-ending car chase scenes in action movies too. I really just want to know what happens next.) My suspicion is that I'd not have enjoyed Red Harvest quite as much as the other two anyway, not because it's not good but because the other two are so well-done that they can't quite be matched.

Loving husband is always up for those errands that I hate to run, and says sure he'll run to the video store sometime this weekend. I can't wait to see the movies!