Rating: 
Summary: The Last Novel Completed by Hammett
Review: Although this was the last novel completed by Hammett, he did live for over twenty-six more years until 1961. The story introduced the dashing couple Nick and Nora Charles who in some respects resembled Hammett and his long-time companion Lillian Hellman.If you entertain romantic notions about New York City in the 1930's, this will help you enjoy the book. However, you will have to cope with unceasing dialogue which is difficult to follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Marvelous read
Review: Contrary to what someone else wrote in these posts, the novel is very much like the movie, except it gets away with things the Code wouldn't allow Powell and Loy to get away with. It's uncanny how the screenwriter nailed the tone of the book and the voices of the Charleses -- as you read it, Powell's and Loy's voices come right through. It's fast-paced, witty, and, as someone else in here said, the mystery's not the thing. The banter is. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: So - so.
Review: For Nick Charles life has become a comfortable routine of running his wife, Nora's, inherited businesses, social gatherings, and stock market investments. Waiting for Nora to return from a Christmas shopping trip he enjoys a drink in a local bar where he is reacquainted with Dorothy, daughter of an old client, Clyde Miller Wynant, who she claims has disappeared and is under suspicion of murdering his assistant. So Nick Charles is reluctantly drawn back into his earlier profession as a private investigator. All is not as it seems, and Nick Charles discovers that Clyde Miller Wynant has been murdered by his attorney, who, in consort with Wynant's ex-wife, is out to lay claim to the Wynant fortune. Dashiell Hammett's writing skills are terribly stretched in what should really been a short story in order to avoid the relentless vapidity of the first 120 pages, after which the story springs to life when the Nick Charles character breaks away from the tiresome and trivial spats between various members of the Wynant household. The book's ending was also pretty dismal, with a kind of tacked on piece to help explain how conclusions were arrived at. As Nora says in the last line '...it's all pretty unsatisfactory.' The Thin Man is regarded by many commentators as Dashiell Hammett's worst book. And it is. A shame, since the story is intriguing, but too poorly executed to extend its appeal beyond the hardcore fen.
Rating:
Summary: A cynical martini w/a spash of bitters, garnished w/ murder
Review: For those of you who allow amature reviewers to guide your reading decisions, know this: Those reviews that talk about the book as being about a "destructive relationship" and the characters of Nick and Nora Charles as the user and the willing usee have made the mistake of not reading the actual text on the page, but instead have tried to apply some late-twentieth century literaty criticism, which they don't fully know how to apply, paired with the social-moral attitides toward blatant alcoholism and frivolity, to a book that is simply what it purports to be: a detective novel with imperfect characters and a perfectly logical final twist. If they find Nick Charles to be a violent womanizer, one can only imagine what they have made of Chandler's Marlowe . . . although I wouldn't be surprised to find similarly misinformed opinions of those books by the same reviewers if I could be bothered to look for them.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Nick and Nora
Review: Forget those movies. They took a grimly funny novel about a group of predatory monsters and turned it into a series of light comedies. As splendid as William Powell and Myrna Loy are, they cannot hold a candle to the Nick and Nora portrayed in this novel. Hammett did not write a novel about a sophisticated couple who genteelly solve a murder while pouring cocktails and trading quips. He wrote a dark novel about an ex-detective who has married a wildly wealthy woman, and wants to spend the rest of his life managing her money. He is only faintly connected to the murders, having known the victim and his family briefly several years before, and wants nothing to do with the whole business. He is continually dragged in, however, and very nearly becomes a victim himself. Even a cursory reading of the novel should demonstrate that Hammett was up to much more than a series of one-liners with detective interruptions. Why else would Hammett, one of the most economical of authors, bring the novel to a halt to include a case history of Alfred Packer, the only American convicted of the crime of cannibalism? There is much more here than Hollywood, or anyone else that I know of, has yet realized.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch the movie, instead
Review: Having come off of reading Maltese Falcon and watching the Thin Man movie, I had high expectations for the book. Unfortunately I found it extremely dull, and the characters Nick and Nora, who are so vibrant and alive on screen, are two dimensional alcoholic drips on paper. It took a lot of time to get through this book, and in the end, I didn't care what happened. Although the movie doesn't have much of a plot, it is far more entertaining than the book.
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: 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: Murder and Fun
Review: I don't listen to too many audio books but this is one I've owned for a long time and it's teriffic. Dashiell Hammett's 'The Thin Man' is a beloved book forever embedded in the hearts and minds of most people because of the portrayel of Nick and Nora Charles by William Powell and Myrna Loy in perhaps the best series of films to ever come out of Hollywood. They perfectly captured on film the essence of Hammet's prose. That light and breezily enjoyable atmosphere can be listened to in spurts and fits, at your liesure, in this fine audio book. This audio production is the perfect blend of juice and liquor, Daniel J. Travanti of Hill Street Blues fame and Lynne Lipton going down smooth and easy as Nick and Nora. Any fan of old time radio will know what I mean when I say this has the feel of one of those Lux Radio Theatre productions of the 40's. You can hear the tap of crystal as drinks are poured and you even get the brief intrumental transition from scene to scene when the venue changes. The story is, of course, the fun and sophisticated mystery Hammett wrote so many years ago. This audio version is a lot of fun to listen to and highly enjoyable. You have the convenience of being able to do other things while you delight in the byplay of Nick and Nora while they solve a murder, and of course, drink.This is good stuff, a classy and sophisticated production that never boggs down or gets boring as some audio books do. It is, as I said, more on a par with all those great radio productions from the 40's. If you've read the book and seen the films then I highly recommend you pick this up as well. It's a lot of fun and the perfect antidote for the summertime blues.
Rating:
Summary: A cynical martini w/a spash of bitters, garnished w/ murder
Review: I had fun reading this murder mystery involving a set of interesting, if not quite likeable, characters (who, as others have noted, drink a *lot*). The resolution was mildly unsatisfactory, because it relied partially on information known to the hero, but not to us, so it's unlikely even the sharpest reader could have figured it out. Still, the fun is in getting there, so it really doesn't matter whodunnit. I haven't read anything else by Hammett, so I can't make any comparisons to his other books. _The Thin Man_ was just good enough to make me want to check them out sometime.
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