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The Glass Key (Crime Masterworks) (Paperback)

by Dashiell Hammett (Author) "Green dice rolled across the green table, struck the rim together, and bounced back ..." (more)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Orion; New edition edition (18 April 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0752851330
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752851334
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 387,385 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #18 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Hammett, Dashiell

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Product Description

Product Description
Ned Beaumont is a tall, thin, moustache-wearing, TB-ridden, drinking, gambling, hanger-on to the political boss of a corrupt Eastern city. Nevertheless, like every Hammett hero (and like Hammett himself), he has an unbreakable, if idiosyncratic moral code. Ned's boss wants to better himself with a thoroughbred senator's daughter; but does he want it badly enough to commit murder? If he's innocent, who wants him in the frame? Beaumont must find out.

About the Author
B.1894, d.1961. After spells as newsboy, freight clerk, labourer, messenger, stevedore and advertising manager, Hammett became an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. His experiences as a private detective laid the foundation for his writing career.
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Green dice rolled across the green table, struck the rim together, and bounced back. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The first real masterpiece of detective fiction, 23 Aug 2000
By RUBEN CESAR LOPEZ GARCIA (MALAGA Espana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Glass Key (Vintage Crime) (Paperback)
Why is it that whenever you ask anybody about Dashiell Hammett the first novel that comes to their minds is "The Maltese Falcon"? This novel is brilliant but "The Glass Key" is Hammett at its best and I really think this 200-page story is probably the best crime novel of the 20th century. The most wonderful thing about this little jewel is the way it resists the ultimate test of rereading: the more times you read it, the better it gets and that can be said of few novels in general and of very few crime novels in particular. To me it is a perfect mixture of realistic characterization and plot, the novel has a surprising ending in the best tradition of the Golden Age but that's only the beginning of its worth. And the title has a certain fairy tale-like quality which I simply love. If you still haven't read this novel, I envy you: you're in for a wonderful time. If you want to have a one-volume deluxe edition of Hammett's 5 novels have a look at the Library of America hardback edition, also available through Amazon. It is simply superb, especially in a time when it's getting so difficult to find good longlasting editions of crime fiction books.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The master at the peak of his powers, 21 Mar 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: The Glass Key (Vintage Crime) (Paperback)
When you've finished reading this novel (and if you care anything about the American detective story, you will read this novel), think back. Can you recall even the slightest hint of emotion, or the smallest display of caring by one individual for another? I don't think so, and this is the essence of hard-boiled detective stories. Don't get me wrong. You know Ned Beaumont cares about those he is trying to help, and gets beat up for. He's much too tough to show it, though, and that's the key. That's why they call it tough-guy fiction. This story is straight-on, airtight, wonderfully written. In one eighteen-month period Hammett wrote The Maltese Falcon and The Glass Key. Amazing. We shall never see his like again. Highly recommended.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The inventor of the "hard-boiled detective" at his peak., 26 April 1997
By A Customer
This review is from: The Glass Key (Vintage Crime) (Paperback)
Dashiell Hammetts creative light burned bright but for a brief 5-10 year period. In "The Glass Key," his penultimate novel, Hammett melded the world of the "hard-boiled detective"--shady underground figures, powerful men and, of course, a beautiful woman--with a theme that recurs throughout his ouvre--of basic trust between kindred souls. Often over-shadowed in the eyes of readers by the novels that preceeded and followed, "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man," "The Glass Key" is Hammett at the very top of his form. Writing as no one had before, or has since.
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