Red Harvest (1929)
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Synopsis:
When a private detective's client is murdered, he makes it his mission to clean up a corrupt town.
Impressions:
As much as I liked the plot and character dynamics of The Maltese Falcon, I wasn't a big fan of the prose, so I got the feeling I was going to have some trouble getting through Hammet's works. However, this book has a first-person style more in line with what I was familiar with from reading Raymond Chandler that made for much easier reading. The way the main character plays the criminal factions of PoisonvillePersonville against each other reminds me of Akira Kurosawa'sYojimbo and its imitators (which of course all came after this). Now, even though the people our protagonist is screwing over have it coming, some readers might get a bit fatigued by the whole thing. If you don't fall into this camp, then you're in for a good read that I'm more than happy to recommend.
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