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Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett
After an unsatisfying time with the
second of the Berlin Noir novels
by Philip Kerr, I decided I should go back to the original material that
he was no doubt trying to channel, as do most hard boiled mystery writers,
that of the original and still champion Dashiell Hammett.
This book finds the Continental Op, a delightful character who receives no other name,
making him at once mysterious and the everyman (or every-detective at least), sent on
assignment to a tough, ugly town which he finds to be unimpressive, unpleasant and
unruly. Things go south quickly for him, and when the town tries to do him in, he decides
to do it one better and clean it up by rubbing out most of the main bad guys.
It's a pretty bloody affair, with plenty of hard drinking and sleepless nights and gun fire
and anonymous hotel rooms and laudinum. Pretty gritty stuff, though still a way
better time was had with this story than with the Kerr novel. I found it particularly
interesting when, without spoiling anything really, he calls in additional agents from the
home office at one point to help him out and we see some of the dynamic between them. It's like
seeing Bond having to interact with other 00's. I've not read enough Continental Op stories to
know if this is standard, so I'll continue to make my way though Hammett's catalog, and expect
to enjoy the ride!
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