by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 14, 2008   Last Updated: February 15, 2008

"The Thin Man" was the first in a series of six comic detective movies starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. But the original book by Dashiell Hammett was just as much fun.

The personal details in the book suggest the author was playfully enjoying his final novel. Hammett had already mastered the art of the detective story, culminating with the "The Maltese Falcon," a hard-boiled masterpiece written just four years earlier. In real-life, though, Hammett was involved in a strange "case" all his own. He'd based his detective stories on his own humble origins as a real-life detective, but in the 1930's Hammett was swept into New York's literary circles through his romantic relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman. It's easy to think their conversations must have been transposed into the book's witty conversations between detective Nick Charles and his energetic wife Nora. This classic detective story will ultimately offer another kind of outsider - a man who's privately amused by high society around him.

Hammett's previous detectives were all men who were clever enough to see through the crooks around them - and Nick Charles offers a sophisticated variation on that theme. Throughout the book Nick offers a breezy detachment from the case, pursuing it in part because his wife Nora thinks it's entertaining. From the opening page, he's shown as worldly man - though Hammett also telegraphs that his life is filled with a lot more fun. ("I was leaning against the bar in a speakeasy on Fifty-second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping...") Yes, the book opens in a bar - and the book was published only a few months after the repeal of Prohibition, so it's possible that Nick is also breaking the law to indulge himself.

Liquor appears throughout the book, and it's been suggested that both Hammett and his detective were borderline alcoholics. But surprisingly, this adds an extra interest to the book, since the detective must roust himself from his inebriated lifestyle to assay a difficult case in which the clues only gradually become available. It also suggests a tantalizing picture of the writer himself, who dispenses with the work of explaining the characters and the case by making it double as witty dialogue. This gives the book a fast pace, offering a continuous stream of prose which is both informative and entertaining.

"She was small and blonde, and whether you looked at her face or at her body in powder-blue sports clothes, the result was satisfactory. "Aren't you Nick Charles?" she asked.

"I said: 'Yes.'"

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