complete in one volume the five books that created the modern american crime novelin a few years of extraordinary creative energy dashiell hammett invented the modern american crime novel the five novels that hammett published between 1929 and 1934 collected here in one volume have become part of modern american culture creating archetypal characters and establishing the ground rules and characteristic tone for a whole tradition of hardboiled writing drawing on his own experiences as a pinkerton detective hammett gave a harshly realistic edge to novels that were at the same time infused with a spirit of romantic adventure each novel is distinct in mood and structure red harvest 1929 epitomizes the violence and momentum of his black mask stories about the anonymous detective the continental op in a raucous and nightmarish evocation of political corruption and gang warfare in a western mining town in the dain curse 1929 the op returns in a more melodramatic tale involving jewel theft drugs and a religious cult with the maltese falcon 1930 and its protagonist sam spade hammett achieved his most enduring popular success a tightly constructed quest story shot through with a sense of disillusionment and the arbitrariness of personal destiny the glass key 1931 is a further exploration of city politics at their most scurrilous his last novel was the thin man 1934 a ruefully comic tale paying homage to the traditional mystery form and featuring nick and nora charles the sophisticated inebriates who would enjoy a long afterlife in the movies