Mystery Review: The Thin Man is the fifth, and final, novel by Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961). The film it inspired in 1934 overshadows the novel itself, thanks to brilliant performances by Myrna Loy and William Powell as the celebrated duo. Amazingly, they drink more in the book than they do in the movie, which means their livers must be on life support. Those who do read the book, however, will find that Hammett made a great leap forward in his last novel, creating more rounded relationships and social interactions with a variety of friends and acquaintances, and without the claustrophobic threats of violence in his previous books. He presents a husband and wife team who actually like each other, and demonstrates greater humor than ever before. The book is dedicated to his long-time partner Lillian Hellman, and I have to believe that their relationship formed the basis for Nick and Nora. Plus there's Asta the dog. There must be a dog. As our story begins, Nick Charles has been retired from detective work for six years and is now happily managing his wife's money. It's all very Manhattan, with bars, clubs, shows, sporting events, and includes a reference to "Levi Oscant," which is the name of well-known society pianist Oscar Levant spelled inside out (he was in movies). The witty banter in The Thin Man is top notch. Nick would prefer to focus on his drinking (it may be too early for breakfast, but it's not too early for a drink), but slowly gets dragged into a murder case involving a former client. Nora is there to help and an endless list of entertaining characters follows. I wonder what I would've thought of the mystery if I hadn't seen the film (several times); I enjoyed it immensely anyway and The Thin Man is one of his two best novels. As an aside, the book includes (for no apparent reason) a rather lengthy account from 1874 of Alfred (aka Alferd) Packer, a Colorado cannibal, which I assume is where most people outside Colorado first heard of the incident. I found the novel irresistible, with my only regret being that the only sequels were from Hollywood. [5★]
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