I like the same thing about this as I do other Hammett novels, and it has the same weaknesses, too. the dialogue is unaffectedly funny, and there are a few "cool" lines that really land, an oddity in literature. the let's-just-put-our-cards-on-the-table approach to crime and law is refreshing; Hammett knows that cops, robbers, and detectives are not divine forces operating for good or evil but rather just social actors. it's big guys doin' their jobs lit. people talk a lot and somewhere past the middle the plot gets kind of convoluted and uninteresting before a strong finish shows up to save the day.

I guess the big difference between The Thin Man and the other Hammett novels I've read is that, while they're all sardonic, most of his stuff is tinged with/soaked in tragedy and The Thin Man is pretty close to being a boozy sex comedy with some murder thrown in. I think Nick's exasperation is a craveable literary experience, just like the haunted existentialism of The Glass Key or the brutal exhaustion of Red Harvest both scratch certain itches.

over and over again, Hammett strikes a tone that may share similarities with other noir fiction but is so unlike most offerings that I adore it despite the faults and the slumps. I think the contrast of his professional history as a Pinkerton detective (basically the Blackwater of his time), his political history as a communist, and his literary tone of practicality and doom, I bet some very interesting analyses of his work exist. I'm bummed that I only have one of his novels left to read (The Dain Curse) but I know I'll come back to them!