DRED HARVEST

by Dashiell Hammett

August brought us our classic night and we discussed one of the early Dashiell Hammett books about the "Continental Op", an un-named operative of the Continental Detective Agency based in the Pacific Northwest. This book was a rough compilation of 4 short stories early published in a pulp fiction mystery magazine and Mr. Hammett's first actual attempt at a novel. It may not have been the best choice for its audience since early pulp mystery is, at best, an acquired taste.

Without a lot of detail here, most of the ladies in our group disliked the book intensely though a surprising number read it to the end (though some noted that they cheated and skipped ahead). The men were mixed in reviews but were kinder than the woman who noted that without fail the number of murders almost kept up with the number of pages. They also felt the stitching between the disparate stories was somewhat off-putting. We noted that it was, in essence, a cartoon, almost a 'comic book' in text form and written in a different time for an audience that probably just didn't exist anymore. In general though, the book was not well received.

We did remind ourselves, however, that this author also brought us the phenomenal 'Maltese Falcon', 'The Thin Man' stories, 'The Dain Curse', and 'The Glass Key', probably all more easily accessible to a wider audience.

The book was only exceptional to one of us who gave us our first ever 0 stars, and this in spite of reading the book cover to cover. You have to respect that.

2 STARS