Do the really good detectives ever retire? I doubt it. They’re always pulled back into a crime case by circumstances or fans of their past work. That’s what happened with Nick Charles, who had managed to marry a gorgeous woman with tons of money. He didn’t need detective work to pay the bills. He had a few accounts to manage, some stocks to buy, and some martinis to drink. So he didn’t want to get involved with the murder of the secretary of a man for whom he once worked. But I doubt he could turn off his curiosity or sense of justice any more than he could stop observing the world like a detective. Even when he was sharing a cheap champagne at a speakeasy with a man he had sent up the river several years ago and a small fight broke out, he couldn’t help notice that the more-or-less-former thug still led with his right. It was that mistake which the two men had agree allowed Nick to bag the thug back when they were on opposite sides of the law.
The Thin Man is a great crime novel. It’s very funny in parts, and if you have seen the movie series based on Nick and Nora Charles, both movie and book characters are alike in the sexy wit that has appealed to many readers and viewers for decades. This is Hammett’s last novel, and it’s recommended.
Truly great stuff, and a classic. What impressed me most was the darker tone of the book, though. Nick & Norah are certainly the “perfect couple,” and their conversation is very clever, but the book is by no means a “screwball comedy” in itself. In particular, note how things end up for the young girl played by Maureen O’Sullivan (it was her, right?) in the book, as contrasted to movie.
For all that, I have to say I prefer the movies, just because Myrna Loy’s in them.
Oh, I really liked those movies. So there was only one Thin Man book?
Yes, Loy is beautiful, and I love her character.
And yes, there was only one Thin Man novel. I don’t remember how much the movie differs from the book. I remember the core mystery is there, but I couldn’t remember who did it in the movie and the book complicates things enough to confuse me. Naturally, the book ends better IMO, but I suppose you can’t explain everything to the audience at the end unless you pull the characters together like the movie does. Having the lead character talk you through it doesn’t work so well on screen.
I didn’t think it was a dark story though. The Wynants are a pretty sad family, but they feel dark to me. Part of the lightness may be that everyone seemed to know Nick, and they liked him even if he had sent them up the river.