In 1999 fans of hard boiled detective stories got a fresh treat, from writings at least 70 years old. That was the year a collection of Dashiell Hammett’s short stories were combined and released in Nightmare Town. Many of the stories had been unavailable in decades, and several had not been released since the date of their first publication in pulp magazines such as Black Mask. It is a mostly hodgepodge collection filled with some real classics and some failed duds. It’s more of a rarities boxed set than a greatest hits package. But for fans of Hammett it is a real gem.
The stories run the gamut of Hammett’s writing. There is a small collection of Continental Op stories, Hammett’s nameless tougher guy private detective seen in his first two novels Red Harvest and The Dain Curse. We get a couple of short sequels of the Maltese Falcon starring Sam Spade. There’s plenty of murders, bad guys, and even an early draft of The Thin Man, minus any appearance of Nick and Nora Charles.
Many of the stories suffer from what is a shorter length than his novels. It is a difficult feat to devise a tense, terse plot, find a crime, create interesting characters and solve the mystery within 20 odd pages. On several occasions Hammett misses. He takes short cuts with the plots, or explains away the mystery without giving sufficient evidence within the preceding pages.
My favorite Hammett character, the Continental Op, makes several appearances. He is a quiet, tough, private detective who works by his own set of morals. Some of his stories work like gold, while others seem rushed, or as if Hammett was still working out his craft. Too often the Op repeats the details of the case to himself (and the reader) and wonders who too trust, what to believe. It is an unbelievable detail, and one that thankfully Hammett gave up as a writer.
There are a few real gems in the collection Ruffians Wife, His Brothers Keeper, and the Thin Man among them. Ruffians Wife is the story of a tough guy’s wife who spends her days romanticizing her husbands work. When that work is brought home and the violence made real her, instincts change and she sees just how awful those things are. It is written in a sparse, bleak style, giving every gritty detail the right color to feel reality rushing in. His Brother’s Keeper is minus the murders and plus on wayward kids trying to get their one shot at being a contender. The Thin Man has nothing to do with the novel of the same name but may be the best story of the bunch. It is a breezy tale about an insurance man more in love with poetry than trying to find a swindler. There actually is a bit of Nick Charles in him in that he is light hearted and bent more on romanticism than fighting crime. The detectives seem to follow him around and kid him more than try to do their own jobs. The story unfolds in a light easy flow.
Article comments
1 - Rodney Welch
Mat, you cover extremely well all the things I hated about Nightmare Town. The stories were so badly written they depressed me. I gave up on the book halfway through and re-read The Dain Curse just to remind myself just how terrific Hammett can be.
2 - Mat
Ah, it wasn't that bad. There are actually some rather good stories. Of course, there are some pretty bad ones too. Many definitely seemed like it was just learning how to write.
3 - Bill Wallo
I'll have to check it out, although the stories do sound a bit uneven. Sometimes short mystery fiction can be quite good - I enjoyed reading Raymond Chandler's short stories, especially those collected in The Simple Art of Murder; these sound like a bit more of a hodgepodge. But it may still be worth a gander.
4 - Mat
It's definitely worth a look. I think its worth the price of admission just for the 10 chapters of the original draft of Thin Man. Very intereting to ponder what it would have looked like completed in that style. Though I'd hate to give up Nick and Nora.
These were culled from all sorts of pulps and you can tell soem were never meant to remain throughout all time. But again, there are a couple of really good stories and well worth the time of any Hammett fan.