The Four Great Novels: The Dain Curse / The Glass Key / The Maltese Falcon / Red Harvest

by Dashiell Hammett

The Four Great The Dain Curse; The Glass Key; The Maltese Falcon; Red Harvest (Picador Books)

Genres: Fiction, Crime, Noir, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, The United States Of America

784 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Also wrote as Peter Collinson, Daghull Hammett, Samuel Dashiell, Mary Jane Hammett

Dashiell Hammett, an American, wrote highly acclaimed detective fiction, including The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1934).

Samuel Dashiell Hammett authored hardboiled novels and short stories. He created Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) among the enduring characters. In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in the New York Times, "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction."

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell...

Reviews

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is ranked 10th in Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list by the Crime Writers' Association, and The Mystery Writers of America Best 100, the novel has the second place, while on The Greatest Books of All Time site you find this in the 124th spot, we could go on like this, but let me tell you where you find hundreds of reviews, the best of which is https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...

10 out of 10


I am hoping that writing about this superb mystery novel will make me forget about the turmoil, crimes committed in the world now, when we are at war, in Ukraine and some other realms, a real one, and in Canada, European Union there is a tariff war going on started, by the vile leader of the MAGA cult, the epitome of

- Evil

Nevertheless, perhaps I should try and concentrate on Sam Spade, and forget about the symbol of darkness, at least for now, maybe there would be opportunities to laugh at this, and besides, they say that writing helps, first, we use a different part of the brain, and then when you put something down, or on the screen

- It helps, due to a detachment, and then it may make more sense

At the beginning of The Maltese Falcon, the beautiful Miss Wonderley walks into the office of Sam Spade and Miles Archer, to say that she is worried about her sister, who has been somehow seduced, entrapped by this fellow, Floyd Thursby, and she wants the private detective firm to help her and the sibling
Miles Archer is impressed, and so is the hero, and he offers to tail this seducer, but things move fast in this enticing, captivating narrative – actually, this may be the moment for a spoiler alert, perhaps it is the second, since I warned potential readers already, on account of a predictable move towards the mess in the world

The police come to ask the main character questions, because Miles Archer is dead, shot, and from here on, his partner – now the only one in the firm – is a suspect, he had had an affair with his deceased associate’s wife, and that offers a quite strong mobile, to get rid of the husband, so that he can be with this widow

However, readers see this is not the case – we do not know ‘who did it’ though – because, for one thing, Spade avoids the grieved woman, asks his secretary to keep her away, when they do meet, the widow asks Sam if he has killed her spouse, and he is taken aback, he sees Mrs. Archer as a nuisance, not a future consort
Joel Cairo and other figures enter the frame, while the client is revealed to have another name, she is Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and it is close to that joke we had in the communist days, with Radio Yerevan – a question there was ‘is it true that Mr. Ionescu (my name) was given a white Dacia car? And the answer is surprising:

- It is not a car, it is a bicycle, it is not white, it is black, and it was not given to him, it was taken from him

Ergo, Miss O’Shaughnessy does not want her sister back, if she has one, she is after this statuette, The Maltese Falcon, though we do not know the name or indeed, anything about it at this stage – I think I am sort of decent, probably I will stay away from revealing things that happen well into the plot and maybe avoid this Orange Fool
So is Joel Cairo, who comes to the office of Sam Spade to make an offer, five thousand for the missing object, which he thinks the detective may have, so after the first exchange, the alleged client pulls out a gun and wants to search the premises, only the hero is not just smart, brave, intrepid, creative, he is also strong

Figuratively and literally, Sam Spade will have other chances to show he can avoid trouble, another shady figure who wants the precious statue is Casper Gutman, who is fat, and the author could say that in 1930, the latter sends a gun man to follow the detective, and Spade outsmarts this and the other foes in the plot
What I find incredible, to some point, is the ending, I will not reveal it, just muse on this for some time, yes, it makes perfect sense – somehow, maybe – but in my mind, there is doubt, surely, because I would not have the same reaction, and this must be explained in various ways, staring with age, which is so different

Yes, I take part in a lot of exercise, there is this difficult thing I do and advertise here, sitting on my head in the lotus position – I wish I could make some money with this, for the firm is not doing too well now, and look at what the Orange MAGA Fool is doing – but still, maybe I am 35 in body, but do not think like Sam Spade
Let me just use these last three lines to vent a little, about this Dumb Mafia Boss – Trudeau was right to call what he does stupid, albeit he avoided an outright insult – he is a calamity, and I kept saying this, you can look at my older notes, and I was right, the end is Nigh

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

[Jack Milton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good old fashioned fun.

[Mark Potts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first discovered Dashiell Hammett, the writer, through the music of Rory Gallagher. The Irishman was obsessed with tales of the Continental Op, Sam Spade, gangsters, molls, and duckin' out the back of a juke joint. Of course, I knew of The Maltese Falcon, being a Bogart fan but, I had never actually read Hammett.

My biggest mistake was not reading Hammett. I had, I will admit, been a bit of a snob and considered that style of writing to be poor, pulp fiction, commercial trash. Even I can be an ass at times.

You can look at Dali and Picasso and say, that's crap, her nose is where her ear should be or, how can you use an eclair as a brain. But, the thing that made Dali and Picasso, such fantastic artists was that they knew the rules and they went and broke every single one of them. Reading Hammett is like that. To be able to write like that is not an accident or, Dan Brownly lazy, it is a thing of beauty. Maybe you don't get it until you read it. It sort of creeps up on you. At first, it's so different - a completely different language - you can't really understand what they are talking about. Then, you pic it up and because it is total immersion, by the end of Red Harvest, you know exactly who is the frail, who is the patsy, what the shamus is up to and what's in it for the Continental Op.

Give it a go. Remember, it's in black and white, though.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully quaint with their emotionless, cynical detectives, the four novels in this omnibus turned out to be a lot more entertaining than I expected. There was a lot of murders after the 'main' murders, a lot of running around and smoking, and a lot of tough talk and kissing of women. Of the four, only the first two feature the same protagonist - the Continental Op, who, I must confess, is probably my favourite. The third novel, The Maltese Falcon, contains Sam Spade, a detective whose partner is killed in the first few chapters, and who is plagued by women with an interest in him. The fourth novel, The Glass Key, tells the story of Ned Beaumont, who decides to find the murderer of a rich man's son, and meanwhile loses his best friend (of that year) and builds a new place in the world for himself. While the Continental Op novels are daring and told from a first-person perspective, the other two show things from a third-person perspective, spending a lot of time (sometimes too much) describing characters' facial expressions and tone of voice.
What was curious were the regular dream sequences - each novel contained the description of a dream sequence, and I'm still not sure if they were meant to mean something, or if the reader is meant to decode them in his own way. They felt a little incongruous in the cold and factual setting of all four novels.

[James_S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the Maltese Falcon immediately after Perez Reverte Nautical Chart as it is cited as a characters influence. Every page had my imagination churning with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre etc. The dialogue was like those actors speaking the lines. Sam Spade does very little detecting but the atmosphere is dripping with noir attitude & intensity. Very dated but very glad to have dipped into this author.

[Tom Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can see the progression in his writing through these four novels. The first is over the top action, the second overwrought mystery, the third a pretty good detective story and the fourth is an amazing all around piece of work.

[Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Harvest, 4*: a great, taut thrilling series of events in a crime filled berg.

The Dain Curse, 5*: Brilliant mystery and excellent characters

The Maltese Falcon, 5*: best of the lot, stupendous ending that took my breath away

the Glass Key, 3*: most unlikeable protagonist and simplest plot. Very nice writing though, particularly the use of the protagonist's full name constantly.

[March · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars mainly because of Red Harvest. The Maltese Falcon gets more like 2,5.

Red Harvest
And here is my dip into the so-called noir fiction. Dashiell Hammett is described as the epitome of hardboil; and no wonder – the characters in this book are as hardcore and hardboil as it can possibly get. Highly enjoyable read - lively dialogue, tons of action, twists and turns galore. Red Harvest (at first, for reasons unknown, I was sure that this was going to be a book about them Commies) tells the story of a private detective hired by the mayor of a fictitious American town first to investigate the murder of his son, and thereafter to take it from there and completely clean the streets of rampant and unpunished crime. The story takes place in the 1920s, as far as I understood -- time of gangsters, bootleggers, con artists, and all sort of swindling mobsters. Personally preferred Red Harvest to the, perhaps more famous, The Maltese Falcon, which I read next.


The Maltese Falcon
After The Red Harvest, I turned my gaze to the jewel in the crown of the “The Four Great Novels” Dashiell Hammett tome that I had gotten at my working place’s internal library – The Maltese Falcon. This possibly most famous book by Hammett was not as enjoyable to me as The Red Harvest. Yes, it offered the same amount of hard-boiledness and toughery and bravura, but the story was somehow too convoluted and sort of far-fetched here, in contrast with the hard-knock, no-bullshit premise in The Red Harvest; the latter is about “real stuff from real life” – corruption and treachery and the dangerous streets – as opposed to the iffy setup of a hunt for a long-lost mythical precious-stone figurine from the time of the knights Templar or whatever. Furthermore, while the too-cool-for-school-ness and bad-assery of the main character in The Red Harvest were amusing and even refreshing to me, I found the protagonist of The Maltese Falcon more of a wise-ass than anything else, and – after a certain point – a freaking annoying one at that. When there’s not a non-wise-ass bone in someone’s body, it seizes to be charming anymore – it’s simply too much, and that’s exactly the problem with Sam Spade. And though I admit that he probably gave way more credit to the book’s damsel in distress than I ever would (I just have a problem with people putting on a fake “I’m a victim” act to use other people to their own petty advantage), that relationship eventually did nothing to dispel the thick air of self-righteousness about Sam Spade, which in the end I had a hard time swallowing more of.

[Pinko Palest · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had this on the bookcase for some 30 years or so and had never come round to reading it. Maybe its bulk put me off. I didn't know what I was missing. All four novels are great reads, and in places they are masterpieces. I felt that The Dain Curse was the most gripping story of the four, while the Glass Key was the most interesting one, in its portrayal of how politics really works. But the other two were the ones which had the best lines, although one was a blood bath and the other a bit over the top. All in all, a great read

[Lkelly6 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second time to read THE MALTESE FALCON; the first time was in the 1970s. To realize how the world has changed, just read this book. Observing and realizing the revolutionary changes in our culture since 1929 when this book was published adds another level of meaning and reading pleasure to this piece of American literature. Wow!

Since I came of age in the late 1960s, I began adulthood when Sam Spade's attitudes toward women flourished like a Royal flush. I don't even remember being offended by Sam's behavior then, as I was instantly offended as I began reading this time.

These detective mysteries -- I call this Perry Mason style -- are still my favorite genre. Here's my description: Oh, someone about whom we readers do not care has been murdered. The plot then revolves around a variety of interesting characters, none of whom are serial murderers, child rapists, or sexual predators. Trying to follow the clues to the puzzle solution provides total fun with no wishy-washy gray areas; the perp is guilty, good!

Roll on, detective stories uncomplicated by modern morality!

[Kate Blumenthal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished Red Harvest. It's hard to rate this novel. I thought it was very well written and a gripping story but I found it difficult to read as well as difficult to put down - I'm not used to so much alcoholism and murder. None of the characters were in any way appealing and the parts of town of Butte Montana where the action took place were even less appealing than the characters. I guess this is my introduction to the Continental Op. I'll see if I can get through The Dain Curse and for sure I want to read the Maltese Falcon.
Finished the Dain Curse. Macabre. But now we are into the Maltese Falcon and it is terrific.
Finished the Maltese Falcon and will not be reading the final two stories, so I'll mark this as read. I wish there were more books with Sam Spade, the hero who tries to be an anti-hero. The casting in the movie is great but I can't see Peter Lorre, Mary Astor or Humphrey Bogart as the characters in the book.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains one of the best noir novels of all time: The Maltese Falcon.

[Daniel Burton-Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Handy paperback edition, but needs an introduction.