Short Story Wednesday: "The Scorched Face" by Dashiell Hammett

 

"The Scorched Face" is a Continental Op story, over thirty pages long, a novelette I guess. First published in 1925 in Black Mask. 

The Op works for the Continental Detective Agency, in the San Francisco office. He is looking for two missing girls, the daughters of a rich family in the area. The job involves a lot of footwork and tracking down information about friends and acquaintances, and the detective has support from other operatives. Once a death is involved, even though it is clearly a suicide, he also gets help from a policeman he knows. The story was very readable, and I did not lose interest at any time, even though it took a lot of footwork and dead ends before hitting upon the solution. It was a good picture of working at a detective agency at that time. And there is a great twist at the end. 

I had previously read two novels by Hammett, The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, but this was the first short story that I read by him. Now I will find more of those to read.

I read this story in Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories, edited by Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian. It has over 500 pages of stories published from the 1920s through the 1990s, with a preponderance of stories from the 1930s and the 1950s. 

Favorite Reads of 2015

I read 90 books in 2015.  Of that total, 79 were novels, 8 were non-fiction books, and 3 were books of short stories. As usual, most of my reads were mystery novels, but I did read some fantasy and some science fiction. 

I don't keep good statistics so my numbers are rough, but I did check out how many books by male and female authors I read. 45 books by male authors, 34 books by female authors. I would like a better balance in that area. Of the 79 novels, 11 were re-reads. 

Of the 11 re-reads, there were several that were top reads this year. However, with such a long list of favorites, I elected not to include re-reads.

There is no order to this list, and I did not pick a top favorite of them all.

Lock In   by John Scalzi. 
This novel, published in 2014, is a thriller set in the near future. The story picks up about 20 years after the world-wide epidemic of a virus which causes Lock In syndrome. At this point, technological breakthroughs have been developed to the point where the victims of the disease who have been locked in can move around, talk, and function in society in a robotic device while their bodies are lying in a bed elsewhere. The ramifications of a life like this and the society which deals with it is explored via a murder mystery.

I have read two other books by John Scalzi, both in the Old Man's War series, Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. That series is military science fiction, and it surprises me how much I like it. I do enjoy the way Scalzi tells a story.

The Maltese Falcon   by Dashiell Hammett. 
Most of you will be familiar with this novel, originally published in 1930. Briefly, the story is set in San Francisco, in the late 1920's. Sam Spade is a private detective hired by a beautiful and mysterious woman to help her find her sister. I avoided reading this book for a long time because I thought it would be too brutal and dark for me (even though the 1941 movie with Humphrey Bogart is one of my favorite movies).  I could not have been more wrong; I loved every word of this book. After reading the book, I watched the film again. Both the film and the book are very, very good.

Concrete Angel   by Patricia Abbott. 
This is Abbott's debut novel, published in 2015, and it is stunning. In the opening chapters of this book, Eve Moran kills a man and insists on treating it as an accident; and then proceeds to let her daughter Christine, at twelve years of age, take the blame. From that point on, Christine relates the background of Eve's problems, how her parents met and married, and how Eve's mental problems and behavior mold Christine's life. Thus this book has elements of crime fiction, but it is primarily a character study and the study of a very dysfunctional family. The events are set in and around Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s. My summary is inadequate to convey the depth of the story.




Life After Life   by Kate Atkinson.
This book, published in 2013, is not a mystery, and it has an unusual structure. Ursula, the heroine, lives her life over and over. Sort of like the plot of the film Groundhog Day, but not. At the beginning, it is a challenge for her to even get out of childhood. One mishap after another and the next time she comes back, that one is averted. Sometimes.

Because Ursula is born in 1910 and the book continues to some point in the 1960s, parts of both World Wars are covered. Through Ursula we experience the Blitz and Germany under Hitler. But what I liked most was the view of roles that women played and how the various lives illustrated the limited opportunities open to them.

Shotgun Saturday Night   by Bill Crider. 
Published in 1987, this was the second book I had read by Bill Crider, and I liked this entry in the Dan Rhodes series even more than the first one, Too Late to Die. Dan Rhodes is the Sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas. In this book he gets involved with motorcycle gangs and FBI investigations. Although the story borders on being a cosy-ish police procedural, the ruthless motorcycle gang members do move it a good ways away from cozy.I am hooked on the series, which has now extended to twenty two books. I love the details of life in Blacklin County, in the late 1980's, and the characters, including Sheriff Rhodes' small crew (one jailer, one dispatcher, one deputy).

Hopscotch   by Brian Garfield. 
Published in 1975, this is is an intelligent spy thriller, which won author Brian Garfield the Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writer’s of America. Miles Kendig has been forcibly retired from the CIA. In retaliation, he decides to write his memoirs and publish them, revealing secrets harmful to the CIA. Soon the hunt begins to find Miles Kendig and terminate him. Although most of the agents involved in the hunt are depicted as ruthless, self-serving, and unimaginative, there are some great characters in this book. In 1980, it was adapted as a film starring Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson. Both the book and film are very entertaining but the book is darker.

In Bitter Chill   by Sarah Ward. 
This is another excellent debut novel published in 2015. The story focuses on the abduction of two very young girls while walking to school. Rachel was returned to her family, but Sophie was never found. The crime occurred in the 1970s and was never solved. Over thirty years later, Sophie's mother is found dead in a hotel room on the anniversary of her daughter's disappearance, and all evidence points to suicide. The suicide motivates the police to consider reopening the investigation of Sophie's abduction, and this turns Rachel's life upside down. 

I always enjoy a police procedural; this one focuses not only on the investigation, but also the repercussions on the victim and the two families that were involved. There are sections of the book that alternate between the past and the present and this was particularly well done, maintaining tension throughout.

The Moving Finger   by Agatha Christie.
One of the things I like about Agatha Christie's books is that she often surprises me. The Moving Finger has a first person narrator, Jerry Burton, who has moved to the small village of Lymstock with his sister to recuperate from a serious injury. Shortly after he arrives, he receives a very nasty poison pen letter. He discovers that others in the village have also received such letters. All of a sudden the village becomes more menacing, and a couple of deaths follow.

I enjoyed this book, the story and the characters. It was billed as a Miss Marple mystery, but she barely shows up until the end, making her part in the solving the mystery a bit unrealistic. It also seems to me that this one has a little more romance than usual. The attraction builds slowly and one wonders where it is going, but it is a nice addition.

Funeral in Berlin   by Len Deighton.
Published in 1964, only three years after the Berlin Wall was constructed, this is the third novel in the Nameless Spy series by Len Deighton.  The protagonist is sent to East Berlin to facilitate the defection of an East German scientist. This story is told in first person for the most part, but there are chapters here and there that are in third person. Thus we see some events various character's points of view. I liked that change from the previous two books in the series, although the narration of the nameless spy is one of the best elements of the story.




Diamond Solitaire   by Peter Lovesey.
Published in 1992, Diamond Solitaire is the 2nd book in a police procedural series that is now 15 books long. Its protagonist, Peter Diamond, is ex-CID, due to difficulties in his last assignment. At the beginning of this book, Diamond is sacked from his job as a security guard at Harrods in London. He pursues a personal investigation into the identity of a young Japanese girl, traveling to New York City and Japan along the way. The story is somewhat unbelievable, but I did not have any problems stretching my disbelief and going along with the story. I enjoyed the book throughout, including the methodical way Diamond looks for clues and the patience he exhibits in getting to know Naomi.

The Old English Peep Show   by Peter Dickinson. 
This is the second book in the Superintendent James Pibble series, published in 1969. Pibble is an unusual protagonist, a middle-aged man with a wife who bullies him "into reading the Elsa books." (They figure into the story, of course. This book was also published as A Pride of Heroes.) He is sent off by Scotland Yard to handle the investigation of the loyal servant, Deakin, at Herryngs, a great English country house being run as a theme park, complete with lions, by two retired WWII heroes. Shortly after Pibble arrives he senses that the family is hiding something. This book and the first in the series each won the Gold Dagger award.

Dickinson calls his book "a baroque spoof." The thing that surprised me was that with all the elements of humor and caricature, the later part of the book still has definite thriller elements.

The Maltese Falcon: Book and Film

I put off reading The Maltese Falcon for years because I was certain it would be too hard-boiled for me. Now that I have read the book and loved it, I think the problem was with my understanding of the definition of hard-boiled. I thought it was primarily about violence, brutality, and very unlikeable characters.

There are many useful references on the definition of hard-boiled fiction on the internet, but I found Gary Lovisi's article titled The Hard-boiled Way very helpful.

He says:

Some may think it’s only fiction about violence, often very brutal violence, but that’s not a necessary ingredient.

And..

Authentic hard-boiled fiction is also about real people trying to live their lives, to make it in the day-to-day and getting smashed down inch by inch, lower and lower. But they still hang in there. They refuse to go down for the count. 

There is a lot more to the article and I highly recommend it.

I am sure some hard-boiled fiction is too brutal, violent, or dark for me, but this book was not. Most people will be familiar with the plot, so I will include just a brief synopsis. The story is set in San Francisco, in the late 1920's. Sam Spade is a private detective hired by a beautiful and mysterious woman to help her find her sister. Very shortly there are two murders, and the police suspect Spade in at least one of those crimes.  Spade gets mixed up with a strange group of people hunting for an elusive statuette of a falcon.

I loved every word of this book. I could have been biased by my love for the film adaptation (the 1941 version with Humphrey Bogart). After reading the book, I watched the film again. Feeling that I just cannot do justice to either the book or the film (and especially if I avoid spoilers), I am keeping this short and sweet. Both the film and the book are very, very good.

John Huston's adaptation starred Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet. Two other actors I especially liked were Ward Bond as a police detective and Elisha Cook, Jr. as the gunsel.

Although the Sam Spade of the book is a different physical type than Humphrey Bogart, I put Bogart in the role as I read the book. I only noticed a few scenes in the book that were omitted from the movie. They were no great loss to the film, but they did add more depth to the characterizations and relationships in the book.  Otherwise the film is pretty much a straight adaptation of the book, with the dialog matching Hammett's writing very closely.

Mary Astor played the role of the femme fatale perfectly. From the beginning, Spade is not sure how much he can trust her. In my opinion, Astor kept that suspense going to the very end. Having seen the movie so many times, I cannot remember my reaction the first time I viewed the movie. And every time I see it again, I find new things to love about it.

The book was the basis for two other film versions prior to the 1941 version. The first adaptation, released in 1931, was also titled The Maltese Falcon and starred  Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels. The second, released in 1936, was titled Satan Met a Lady, and starred Bette Davis and Warren William. I have seen both earlier films. They do not come close to the level of the 1941 adaptation, but they are still interesting. There is a great post on Satan Met a Lady at Davy Crockett's Almanack.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Vintage Crime / Black Lizard, 1992 (orig. pub. 1930)
Length:      217 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Setting:      San Francisco
Genre:        Mystery
Source:      I purchased my copy.

Reading in March and Pick of the Month

In March I read nine books, eight mysteries and one non-mystery novel. My reading included three books written by Canadian authors, although only two of them were set in Canada. Another mystery (The Hanging Shed) was written by a Scottish author and set in Scotland after World War II.

The non-mystery was Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and that was a very lovely book. The edition I read was about 525 pages but I sped through it. 

Once again I have reviewed very few of the books I read this month. I am learning to live with this, because I don't think that situation will change anytime soon. 

The end of March ended my participation in the Double Dog Dare TBR Challenge hosted at James Reads Books. The goal was to read only from the TBR pile for those three months. My rules allowed me to read some ARCs that I had committed to in 2014. In January, February and March, I read a total of 20 books from my TBR piles. 

These are the mystery novels I read in March:

A Killing at Cotton Hill by Terry Shames
Officer Elvis by Gary Gurick
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Cast a Yellow Shadow by Ross Thomas
Murder on Location by Howard Engel
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
Death Was the Other Woman by Linda L. Richards

It is easy to pick my favorite crime fiction read for the month.  It is The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. I loved every word of it. I thought I would find it too hard boiled, and I think that is why I put off reading it for so long. I could have been biased by my love for the film adaptation (the 1941 version with Humphrey Bogart). 

The Thin Man: Dashiell Hammett

Bill Pronzini is not very fond of this novel, based on his review in 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction. Here is an excerpt from that review:

The Thin Man is Hammett’s last and weakest novel. By the time it was written, he had begun his affair with Lillian Hellman, been embraced and financially enriched by Hollywood, and adopted a freewheeling, alcoholic, pseudo-sophisticated life style not dissimilar to the one depicted in these pages.  He had, in short, lost touch with everything that had made his earlier work so innovative and powerful — his background as a Pinkerton detective, his contacts in the underworld, the lean years spent in a San Francisco flat painstakingly writing stories for Black Mask.

After watching the first two Thin Man movies in December, I wanted to refresh my memory of the novel. I remembered the unending night clubbing and drinking, but I did not remember the grittiness.
I found the story to be dark, but it was told with humor. If you have seen the Thin Man movie, the banter and quips in that movie show up in the book also. My last post has my comments on the movie.

Nick and Nora Charles are a well-to-do couple. They have a loving and playful relationship. Nora has inherited money; Nick manages the money (with the help of friends with more business knowledge). Nick is a former private investigator who is pulled reluctantly into an investigation into the disappearance of Clyde Wynant (the "thin man" of the title).

The family of the missing man is eccentric, to put it mildly. There is a host of other shady characters and you are never sure who is telling the truth.

I enjoyed the novel. It is the only novel I have read by Dashiell Hammett, so I cannot make comparisons to other books. I do know that this novel is less highly regarded than his other novels by some.

This exchange between Nick and Nora near the end of the novel illustrates the juxtaposition of the indulgent lifestyle with the harder side of Nick.

She laughed. "All right, all right. Still want to leave for San Francisco tomorrow?"

"Not unless you are in a hurry. Let's stick around awhile. This excitement has put us behind in our drinking."

"It’s all right by me. What do you think will happen to Mimi and Dorothy and Gilbert now?”

“Nothing new. They’ll go on being Mimi and Dorothy and Gilbert just as you and I will go on being us and the Quinns will go on being the Quinns. Murder doesn't round out anybody's life except the murdered's and sometimes the murderer's. ”

I hope to read one or more novels by Hammett later in the year to sample his more hard-boiled writing; specifically The Maltese Falcon or The Glass Key.

Submitted for the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge (Yankee Doodle Dandy category). 

The Thin Man and After the Thin Man (films)

We watched The Thin Man and After the Thin Man between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The two movies make a good pair because one follows the other immediately in time. The Thin Man takes place for a few days around Christmas. In After the Thin Man, the couple arrives back home in San Francisco on New Year's Eve. They have been favorite movies in our household for many years, and we never tire of them.

 

Just in case you are not familiar with the premise of the movies, the first movie is adapted from the book of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. From here on, I am mostly talking about the movies, because it is a very loose adaptation. 

Nick and Nora Charles are a rich couple. Nick was a private investigator before they got married, and Nora wants him to investigate a murder of an old acquaintance of his. He wants to stay out of it. Guess who wins? 

Nick and Nora drink a lot. Nick has lots of friends and acquaintances who are on the shady side. There is lots of witty dialog. These are definitely not realistic mysteries, but they are a lot of fun. And I have not even mentioned Asta, the dog, another star of these movies.

W. S. Van Dyke directed both of these movies (and the next two in the series). Per an article at the Turner Classic Movies site: 

The Thin Man was shot on a "B"-movie budget, very quickly -- accounts vary between 12 and 18 days. Not for nothing was Van Dyke dubbed "One-Take Woody."

Nick and Nora are played by William Powell and Myrna Loy. They are perfect in those roles. Also at TCM, how Powell and Loy were selected for the parts:

He [Van Dyke] had just directed Manhattan Melodrama (1934), starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy, and had been struck by the chemistry between Powell and Loy. The two had developed a bantering friendship, and their between-the-scenes repartee was charming and lighthearted. That was exactly what The Thin Man needed. MGM executives didn't agree. Both actors came with a lot of baggage, and studio bosses couldn't see them as the glamorous detective duo.

The cinematographer for the first movie was James Wong Howe, who filmed many other well-known movies, including Yankee Doodle Dandy (my favorite) and Sweet Smell of Success (one of my husband’s favorites).

These two movies were followed by four other Thin Man movies. I have seen all of them, but the first two are the ones we watch over and over again. The third movie also has a good reputation. See this post at Traditional Mysteries.

I did not read the book The Thin Man until a few years ago. I was very surprised to find that Nick and Nora drink just as much in the book as in the movies. While trying to write up my thoughts about this movie, I felt compelled to re-read the book. The plot of the movie is close to the book, but the tone of the book is much darker. The five sequels to The Thin Man movie had no connection to the book. The thin man in the book is not Nick Charles, but I assume they wanted to continue with that title to tie the movies together.