Rating: 
Summary: A Thin mystery
Review: Nick and Nora are delightful:brilliant,ephemeral,yet rational.They are also a couple ready for Alcoholic Anonymous (especially Nick.Too late for breakfast,never too late for a drink.) The mystery is thin,as I said,because the culprit acts from the beginning in a very suspicious and weird manner.The fact is everyone in the novel is suspicious and weird.But pay attention to a VERY suspicious particular...that is so obvious no one notices it.A very enjoyable novel,though not Hammet's best.
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: 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: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Hard-boiled, Cynical, Vividly Rendered Crime Novel
Review: The year is 1932. Nick and Nora Charles have decided to spend Christmas in New York, away from their California home and family business. Nick was a hard-drinking hard-nosed private detective before he married Nora. But Nora's family money paid for his early retirement, and now he wants nothing to do with the investigation business. One afternoon when Charles is out drinking, he runs into Dorothy Wynant, the daughter of an old client of his. She's looking for her father, an eccentric old inventor named Clyde Wynant. When the headlines splashed across the next day's newspaper say that the inventor's secretary and mistress, Julia Wolf, has been found shot to death in her apartment, a lot of people begin to wonder about Clyde Wynant's whereabouts. Mr. Wynant's lawyer, Herbert Macaulay, plies Nick for information. Clyde Wynant's ex-wife Mimi also questions Nick about her former husband. Dorothy Wynant flees her mother and step-father's apartment, and Nora invites her to stay at hers. Nick finds himself in the middle of a mystery he never wanted to know about. But when a thug forces his way into the Charles' apartment at gunpoint and the police shake Nick down for answers, he is left with no choice but to investigate the case. Nick's investigation takes him to New York's speakeasies and into its underworld, through the sordid affairs of the Wynant family, and leads to two more murders before Nick is confident he has cracked the case. Fans of the 1934 film "The Thin Man", which starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, will likely be a bit shocked when they read Dashiell Hammett's novel on which the film was based. Although the film is excellent in its own right, the characters were altered beyond recognition to make them more palatable to a wide audience. Dashiell Hammett's novel is hard-boiled and cynical beyond words. Nick Charles is a violent drunk who married young Nora for her money so that he could spend the rest of his days sleeping and drinking and would never have to work again. Nick and Nora don't like each other very much and don't treat each other very well. The only interest they share is found in the bottom of a whisky glass. All of the characters in "The Thin Man", regardless of social status, are hardened and, in one way or another, quite depraved. There are no likable characters in this novel. It would not be an exaggeration to say that every one of them is a pathological liar and a sociopath. But "The Thin Man" is a good read. The characters, although distasteful, are well-drawn, and Hammett renders every scene vividly. The dialogue crackles with sardonic wit and is the novel's great strength. Dashiell Hammett's novels and stories were extremely popular in the 1920's and 1930's. Readers had a real taste for the blunt talk and bold-faced corruption that reflected urban culture at the time. "The Thin Man " would have fewer fans if were written today. Even if people could get past its cynicism and lack of sympathetic characters, many modern readers will be put off by the novel's abusive attitude toward women and the fact that everyone is so alcoholic that his/her ability to function and speak with any coherence at all really stretches credibility. But I recommend "The Thin Man" precisely because it isn't like modern crime novels. Dashiell Hammett's style is admirable. It won't put you in a good mood, and you may not even be sure that the mystery was solved in the end. But you'll be entertained.
Rating:
Summary: Heavier weight than it first appears
Review: This book actually is worth reading a couple of times. Read it the first time for fun, but then reread it to see what you missed seeing the first time around. You probably know the basic plot. A former private eye has given up on the detective work after his wife has inherited her father's businesses, and is running her financial affairs for her. On vacation, they run into his former acquaintances and, of course, a mystery develops which he reluctantly is persuaded to investigate. There are a lot of undertones here. The obvious fact is that both husband & wife are slipping into alcoholism, although he's ahead of her. He has lost interest in what was once his very life. He apparantly slips out on her on occasion, and she seems to tolerate it...they obviously love each other. But he's not the man he once was. He's going to avoid violent confrontations and he takes the easy way out. His drinking habit, his unwillingness to exert himself in solving a crime, the fact that the only noticeable cheating on Nora is at a party where the other woman apparantly drags him off...all this indicates a once vital person such as Sam Spade or, to compare with another author's detective, Phillip Marlowe who is losing interest in life. I wonder if this book didn't inspire Raymond Chandler's idea for POODLE SPRINGS which opens with Phillip Marlowe's having married a wealthy woman. Chandler only wrote four chapters before his death and Robert Parker finished it, showing Marlowe as too rough hewn a character to settle into the wealthy life style. But Nick Charles gave in to it, and maybe was worse off for doing so. This isn't the strongest of Hammett's books, but it sure is worth reading and wondering a bit about.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READING
Review: This book makes for very good reading. The plot and characters are very well thought out and developed. Well written all around! I recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Nick & Nora Charles!
Review: This is the third work by Dashiell Hammett that I picked up, the others bein Red Harvest and The Dain Curse. While I enjoy Hammett's sharp and colorful prose, these stories left me wanting a little more. In the case of Red Harvest, the crooks and the gunfights had an over-the-top B-Movie essence; The Dain Curse has more of the same, with an extemely offensive racist portrayal of a character thrown in.
The Thin Man marks the first time I have thoroughly enjoyed a Dashiell Hammett novel. The tale is told in the first person by Nick, who is a retired private eye who quit the business after marrying the independently wealthy Nora. Nick and Nora essentiality live life at parties or lazing at home, almost always with cocktails in hand. What makes this duo so charming is their easygoing marriage in which they display affection for one another more via wisecracks than kisses. On top of that, playful Nora is the one person who has Nick's number: he can say no to anything and anybody excepting his wife, for whom he is head over heels.
While Nick & Nora Charles are the characters who steal the spotlight, Hammett paints a fantastic array of characters involved in the disappearance of an eccentric inventor named Clyde Wynant, as well as the murder of his secretary. Most entertaining is the trio of Clyde's family: his ex-wife Mimi (a shallow woman who tries to lie her way out of trouble, with little success), son Gilbert (fragile inquisitive young man intrigued with detective work, human nature, and the effects that illegal drugs have on the mind and emotions), and Dorothy (manic young woman who recognizes her family's erratic behavior, but has trouble tempering her own identity).
The majority of other characters are the colorful and pulpy gangsters, thugs, and cops. You will not find the coarse, gritty realism of a Raymond Chandler story. The Thin Man is more of a "Who Dunnit?" romp that deals with the collection of dysfunctional folks who have ties with the disappearance and the murder.
When all is said and done, Dashiell Hammett leaves "The Thin Man" as a solid packaging consisting of both his excellent descriptive writing and a well plotted story. This story, and nearly any Raymond Chandler novel, are good places to start if you are new to the detective fiction genre.
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