Tuesday, December 17, 2013

*The Dain Curse, by Dashiell Hammett

9780679722601
Vintage Crime/Random House, 1989
originally published 1929
231 pp

paperback

I realize that the last three novels I've written about have been older, but this novel of American crime fiction hearkens back to the end of the 1920s.  It might be old, but like the others I've written about, it still yields a lot of entertainment power.  The Dain Curse first made its appearance in Black Mask magazine as a serial released between October 1928 and January 1929; it was his second Continental Op story after Red Harvest.  It may not be Hammett's best, but I still had a lot of fun with it. I mean, seriously -- you have a whacked-out bunch of people involved in a crazy cult, a wealthy drug-addicted, simpering heroine who just might be the victim of a curse, an old house by the sea, a man hiding a secret identity, and of course, a number of murders before you get to the end.

If you're interested, I've posted my discussion of this book at my crime page  ;  if you know Hammett only from his Maltese Falcon and have never read anything else by him,  you're in for a treat. Go on over and take a look!

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