Vintage Hammett

by Dashiell Hammett

Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, The Continental Op. In his novels and stories, Dashiell Hammett created some of the most memorable characters--detectives, dames, and assorted miscreants--in twentieth-century fiction. It is nearly impossible to imagine modern American literature without Hammett.

Vintage Hammett features episodes from Red Harvest , The Maltese Falcon , The Dain Curse , and The Thin Man ; and stories featuring the Continental Op, including “The House in Turk Street,” “The Girl with the Silver Eyes," and "Flypaper.” It also includes the story "Nightshade" which has not been available in over fifty years.

Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers, presented in attractive, affordable paperback editions.

Genres: Mystery, Crime

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

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

[Mackenzie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the short stories in this collection, but found the extracts from Hammett's novels frusrating as I wanted to read more.

Nevertheless this book is an excellent taster for those interested the work of a master craftsman, when it comes to hard boiled detective stories, Hammett's narrative and dialogue seems effortless. I learned a lot from reading the superbly constructed short works in this book.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Hammett and there are some good pieces in here, but it includes excerpts from longer novels, which seems kind of pointless. Just go read those novels, especially "Red Harvest", instead of this sampler.

[EJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Hoping this is the antidote to the cheesefest that was The Amber Room.)

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Dashiell Hammett. Good if you love a mystery.