The Glass Key
by
Dashiell Hammett
Read May 2007
Copy purchased at Saint Paul Public Library, Highland Park branch book sale, summer 2004
Essay written June 28th, 2007
Actually, the book I have is The Complete Dashiell Hammett, of which this is the second novel of five. The Thin Man was the first. I think this volume cost like a dollar, for a two-inch thick hardcover (rebound) book.
All right, I suppose. You have to put yourself in a 1930 frame of mind. Prohibition, Great Depression, and so on. Understand what movies were like then, and culture. By today's standards of course this would seem horribly tame. At the time it must have been the cutting edge of hardcore detective fiction.
A fun read though, if that's the kind of thing that rattles your sabre.
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