The Thin Man (Mystery Masters)

Rating:
Summary: Hammett's last - a good read
Review: I believe it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who once said, "Hammett is one of those good writers ruined by Hollywood." This book shows Fitzgerald's quote in action.

Don't misunderstand me, 'The Thin Man' is an excellent story. It's amuzing, tense, and contains possibly Hammett's most memorable characters, but it's also a complete departure from his previous novels. In a way, 'The Thin Man' is a farewell. Here we have a once hard-boiled detective, Nick Charles, who has settled down with his wise-cracking wife, Nora, and doesn't want anything to do with his previous work. Instead, Nick drinks, and drinks, and drinks, and goes to parties, and hosts parties, and the like. Whenever anyone questions Nick over the case that he's rumored to be working, Nick simply claims that he doesn't want anything to do with being a detective and leaves it at that.

This being Hammett's final novel, I believe that it an all too valid assumption that Hammett was using the character of Nick to symbolize himself and his own mentality. To connect this with Fitzgerald's comment, following the publication of 'The Thin Man', some movie studio handed Hammett a check for something like $40,000 for use of the characters, cementing his literary decrepitude, and he never worked again.

But it is a good read, very good, and while I would have liked to have given it the full five stars, i've chosen to remain with four, as 'The Thin Man' just doesn't compare with many of Hammett's other classics.

Rating:
Summary: Thin man, good book
Review: The last of Dashiell Hammett's novels was "The Thin Man," and what a last novel it is. A hard-edged whodunnit, Hammett's writing had become very polished and his characters even more intricate by the time he wrote this, and while it's not the best he had written, it's a solid example of his work.

Nick Charles was a rough'n'tough detective... until he married wealthy socialite Nora. Now he's retired early, drinks a lot, and has no apparent wish to come into contact with his messy past life. Enter Dorothy Wynant, daughter of weird (and possibly insane) inventor Clyde Wynant. As it happens, Wynant's secretary/mistress has just been murdered, and was found dying by his ex-wife Mimi.

Nick keeps insisting that he doesn't want to detect, but somehow he gets sucked into it anyway when a gangster (ex-boyfriend of the murdered woman) invades his home and nearly kills him. Dorothy keeps popping up and pleading for help and protection; Charles' old flame Mimi is acting oddly; and her husband has some secrets of his own. Despite Nick's aversion to detective work, he and Nora set out to unravel the mystery surrounding the Thin Man. (Wynant, for your information)

Hammett's cynical attitude was a huge part of his writing, but there's a new dimension to it in "Thin Man." Charles spends a lot of time trying to distance himself from his detective past, and in a way it feels like Hammett was distancing himself from his detective novels. Was Nick's dissatisfaction a sign of Hammett's? Quite possibly.

But many of the things about "Thin Man" are vintage Hammett: lying waifs, men in disguise, lots of lying and booze. Almost everyone is sociopathic, and Nick and Nora aren't exactly what one would call "heroes." However, the dialogue is sharp and witty and the action is slickly exciting. Best of all, Hammett's writing had evolved a bit from his minimalist style; here he describes things like Mimi snarling in a bit more detail.

Nick is the quintessential Hammett anti-hero (cynical, tough, and more than a little obnoxious), except here he's a bit weathered and tired out. Sam Spade and the Continental Op were on top of their games, but he's past his. Nora comes across as a little perkier but as tough in her own way. The crazy Wynant family, like manipulative mom Mimi and freaky son Gilbert, serves as a nice source of conflict.

"The Thin Man" wasn't the best thing Hammett ever wrote, but it's still a solid mystery read. Pass the martinis.

Rating:
Summary: A Grand Classic Detective novel.................
Review: The Thin Man is a wonderful novel. Written in the classic Hammett style, the story is full of twists and turns of the interaction of well defined, recognizable characters.
The central characters are Nick and Nora Charles. Nick has been a history as a successful private detective. Nora is a wealthy socialite. Together they are an intriguing and fun couple, who are forced into investigating the circumstance surrounding the mysterious death of a secretary and the unexplained disappearance of an eccentric,wealthy scientist.
The story is so well crafted that everyone becomes a serious suspect and you are left chasing after each individual motive, trying to "figure it out" before the Charles' do.
This novel is a classic from start to finish.

If you have never watched the classic Black and White movie from the 1930's, THE THIN MAN, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, you have missed out on a treasure, although the book was better and more in-depth.
The movie mirrors the book the closest of any I have seen. The reason, Dashiell Hammett was there to keep it true to the novel. Many of the delightful lines are directly out of the book!
This is a grand and classic detective tale.

Rating:
Summary: I LOOOVE THIS BOOK!!!
Review: The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett's high-society detective novel, is most definitely NOT like the movies based on the book. While the movies are about a gay, carefree couple who solve crimes and do a lot of social drinking, the book is more about a couple in a destructive relationship. Nick only married Nora for her money, and they both know it. He's also a womanizer and an alcoholic (as is Nora). Nora is a younger woman who seems enchanted by Nick's sinful ways, and allows him to use her as he feels free to. The whodunit mystery, although discussed very much in the book, is not the most interesting part of the novel, nor did Hammett intend it to be. Read it for the satirical potrayal of bad relationships. Not just Nick and Nora's, but the dysfunctional (although dysfunctional may be an understatement) family they help to solve the murder.

The Thin Man is also notable for the use of a certain word to describe male arousal. Hammett was attempting to pave the way for other authors to discuss sexuality more openly. Unfortunately, it didn't quite catch on.