October 20, 2014
Phew! What a day it's been. It was such a relief to go to the gym after work and sweat out some stress, and finish this quick, classic crime noir. Apparently it was Hammett's last novel; he wrote several during the 1920s and early 1930s, I think, but the main characters in this book are his most celebrated.
Nick Charles is a retired private eye. I don't know what he and his young wife Nora do for a living; one sarcastic remark from him suggests that she comes from money. They constantly banter, and have a light-hearted relationship fueled by alcohol, and her love of excitement. Their conversations are fun to read. Though Nick is a brilliant detective, he isn't to be taken seriously by his wife. She is frequently praised by other men, and Nick doesn't let his pride show in his throwaway responses. They seem good together. In some ways, they remind me of Kenzie and Gennaro. Nora isn't involved directly in the murder investigation, though she helps her husband to reason aloud.
But the Wynants are worth remembering as well. See, the "thin man" is a kooky inventor (like of synthetics or something chemically) named Clyde Wynant. Years before, not long after he'd hired Nick to work a case for him, he'd divorced his wife and gotten out of contact with his kids. Wynant's daughter, an emotionally unstable young woman named Dorothy, remembers Nick from all those years ago when she runs into him at a bar at the beginning of the book. She starts to hang out with him and Nora, just as the news breaks that Clyde's assistant and lover was shot dead in her apartment. Coincidentally, it was just before Mimi Jorgensen, Clyde's ex, was going to see her. Mimi witnesses her dying, in fact, as she wasn't shot very expertly.
Dorothy isn't the only nutty one in the family. Her brother Gilbert is obsessed with the macabre aspects of human nature: cannibalism, incest, the like. But he's a harmless geek, as Nick finds out. Gilbert seems to admire Nick's world weariness; the same subjects that thrill him are nothing to Nick.
If Clyde is really crazy, Mimi could give him a run for it. Her emotions turn on a dime, and she's violent at times; she beats up on her 20-year-old daughter, for instance. And she lies constantly. Nick sees right through her, and she hates it. The Wynant family definitely have their share of drama. Yeesh.
What baffles me is this: why would the murderer want Nick on the case? To deflect suspicion, knowing that Nick was associating with the Wynants, and to try to bar him from the car would be suspicious? I don't know. That's my only real beef with an other complex yet neatly assembled plot. For it being so brief, I felt like the Charleses and the Wynants were very compelling characters.
The interactions between characters was fascinating. Besides the very most heated moments, people were polite to one another. Mimi and Dorothy were the most "modern" because they let their emotions guide their behavior. Nick takes part in polite rituals but seems impatient with them. The use of the term "polite speeches" made me think of Mr. Collins, his over-the-top attempts at graciousness coming off as ass-kissing and overkill.
I would like to read more classic mysteries. More Sherlock Holmes, more by Hammett, and others. I've said here before that I am always impressed by a well-crafted mystery, and I want to read the works that still surprise readers and inspire mystery writers to this day.
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