*1.5

Definitely one of those books in which the movie is way better. ( )

Really liked it. I've never read Hammett before but had seen Maltese Falcon (when I was in HS) and was disappointed in the murder mystery plot. At the time, it wasn't enough of a big surprise / twist / whodunit. At that point for mystery I'd only read Sherlock Holmes & Agatha Christie. (& Encyclopedia Brown :) I felt same about novels of Raymond Chandler: the noir / hard-boiled atmosphere is great, but they seemed ALL atmosphere and the plots weren't neat enough for me. I think that 1) I've outgrown the need for plots to be a big "gotcha" and obviously that's not what Hammett & Chandler were going for. but 2) this book had more of a hook-y plot than Chandler. I recently read "The Dalton Case" by Ross McDonald (" has been called the primary heir to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler) and really liked it. Will look for more by these two. (Hammett wrote >80 short stories but only 5 novels.) ( )

Decent, although nowhere near as good as Maltese Falcon. Characters are engaging though, although I found Nora to be shallower than I had initially hoped given Darby's interest ( )

The Thin Man is a murder mystery set in depression era New York. Well-heeled Nick and Nora Charles sleep most of the day away, party all night and drink 24/7. Nick is an old friend of the Richard Wynant who has gone missing at the same time his secretary is found shot to death in her apartment. Nick quickly becomes involved in solving the case, with the help of his wife Nora. They meet an eclectic cast of characters. Richard's hot-tempered wife, his odd children, abusive policemen and assorted gangsters. Through it all Nick and Nora keep a sense of humor, drink and work to crack the case.

Dashiell Hammett does a wonderful job of capturing the tone of the time and location he is writing in. He sets scenes and dialogue very well. However, The Thin Man is very much a novel of the time it was written. Casual misogyny is threaded throughout the book. There is no thought given about sexualizing or supplying drinks for a clearly distraught, troubled young woman. Instead of timeless, The Thin Man comes off as dated. It provides an interesting insight into the time period it was written but can come off as jarring at certain points. ( )

For the longest time I only knew Nick and Nora as crossword puzzle answers. I was glad to finally read this, but I didn't love it. It's very much of an era and it felt annoying and dated in so much of social interaction aspect. ( )