- Paperback: 216 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; 1st Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Ed edition (1 Sep 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679722610
- ISBN-13: 978-0679722618
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,127,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty--even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.
About the Author
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was born in Maryland and worked in a number of menial jobs until he became an operative for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. His experiences as a private detective laid the foundations for his writing career. His work includes Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, The Thin Man and some eighty short stories, mostly published in Black Mask magazine.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The field of doom bears death as its harvest,
By Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Red Harvest (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)
Aeschylus. The harvest of death is both plentiful and bloody in Dashiell Hammett's marvelous thriller "Red Harvest". Dashiell Hammett, a former Pinkerton detective, pretty much invented the hard-boiled (U.S.) detective genre. The influence of Hammett's short stories and novels, "Red Harvest", "The Dain Curse", "The Glass Key", "The Thin Man" and "The Maltese Falcon" can be seen in much of the detective fiction writing that followed, including among others Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, Ross Macdonald, James Ellroy, Robert Parker, James Lee Burke, and Michael Connelly. The plot of "Red Harvest", Hammett's first novel, also found its way into movies such as Akira Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", Sergio Leone's "For a Fistful of Dollars", and the Coen brother's "Miller's Crossing". "Red Harvest" begins with the arrival of the Continental Op, Hammett's trademark "man with no name" in the town of Personville. The client he has been summoned to see is found murdered before the Op can meet him. In short order the Op finds that Personville's nickname, "Poisonville" is well-earned. It is a town filled with small town greed and big time corruption. The Ops arrival coincides with the onset of a turf war for control of the city between rival gangsters. The Op pays a call on the dead man's father, Elihu Willsson. The Op soon determines that the town's descent into a state approaching a low level of hell began when Willsson imported some mobsters to break up a strike. Their stay turned out to be far from a temporary one. For reasons of his own, perhaps just to be stubborn or perhaps as a matter of some principle or warrior code, the Op decides to stay and clean up the town. His method is simple, pit each gang and its various factions and sub-factions against each other until the dust settles and it is discovered that they have pretty much killed themselves off. The Op is not afraid to pitch in and help the process along. As noted above, "Red Harvest" was Hammett's first full length book. Perhaps as a result some of the sentences were longer and more `literary' than his later books, by which time he had perfected a leaner, staccato, machine gun style of dialogue. Nevertheless, "Red Harvest" was and remains an impressive and exciting piece of writing. "Red Harvest" along with just about everything else Hammett ever wrote is well worth reading.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forget what you think you know.,
This review is from: Red Harvest (Crime Masterworks) (Paperback)
Dashiell Hammett wrote the Maltese Falcon- everyone knows that. What they might not know is that he also wrote other, better books. Red Harvest is my personal favourite. The Op isn't just another square jawed, comfortably hard boiled private dick- calling broads "Shweet'art," He is a deeply enigmatic- at times sinister character- his motives are murky and he is just as coldly manipulative as any villain Sam Spade ever faced down.You might find a hard-boiled tough talkin' dame here, you'll also find crooked cops. What you won't find is a single flaw or cliché in this remarkable crime-classic.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A noir masterpiece,
By A Customer
This review is from: Red Harvest (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)
All those writers that flood the market these days, who cannot write a book of less than 500 pages and who think a "violent" story means also "gross and gruesome;" all those intellectuals that cannot see pith in dime novels, they should be locked up somewhere with this very slim book and not be released until they have learned some facts of literature.This is a gem of a book, from the unforgettable opening paragraph to the final "he gave me merry hell," there is not one word, one comma or one period too many. Hammett can describe a character or a situation in five lines, the way a good painter may draw a human figure or an object with just five strokes of the pencil. The plot is tight, raw and yet elegant; however not to be recommended for people with short attention spans, because it has so many twists and turns, and more characters than a Russian novel. This only adds to the interest, though. I have read this book over and over and always find new things about it.
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