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The Thin Man
Reading The Thin Man after seeing the movie starring William Powell and Myrna Loy many times was difficult. The movie prevented me from seeing the characters, as my imagination would have created them. I kept seeing William Powell and Myrna Loy. Forcing myself to concentrate on Hammett’s prose, however, I eventually got into the story and more importantly into Hammett’s way with words.
For those unfamiliar with this work, The Thin Man is the novel that created the hard-boiled detective that every mystery writer since has created in his or her own way. Only in Hammett’s original, unlike the hard-boiled detectives of today, Nick Charles, actually Charalambides—he’s Greek, is happily married to Nora Charles, who happens to be very wealthy and Nick is content to be managing the family fortune. Today’s detectives, by contrast, have a terrible family life, if any; are mostly not married; are generally not well paid; and typically get beaten up and bashed about a lot more than Hammett’s man.
The mystery surrounds a missing inventor, Clyde Miller Wynant, who happens to know Nick and, by letter, asks Charles to look into the murder of Julia Wolf. The young woman had worked for Wynant. Nick reluctantly gets involved because the police, Wynant’s divorced wife and family, as well as Wynant’s attorney keep dragging him into the affair. Don’t look for a detective that meticulously searches the crime scene for overlooked clues. Nick is a detective who finds his clues in the people surrounding the victim.
The Thin Man is full of enough people with motives for the murder that the reader cannot easily see the killer. There is Mimi Jorgensen—Wynant’s ex-wife and her new husband Chris. He married her for Wynant’s money and now that it is gone, he is looking to move on. Mimi is willing to do anything to ensure she gets more of her first husband’s wealth. Then there is Wynant himself, a recluse, creating his next invention at a secret location in Philadelphia. There is also Herbert Macauley, Wynant’s attorney, and the man with the most direct connection to Wynant. Other underworld characters include Shep Morelli. He knew the victim, as did John Nunheim, a police informant, who secretly desired the murder victim.
Nick and Nora Charles live a glamorous life socializing with the well to do in the depths of the depression while finding time to hang out in speakeasies. The story is set in the 1930s amid the era of prohibition and begins with Nick "…leaning against a bar in a speakeasy on Fifty-second Street (in Manhattan) waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping…" The Charles are staying at the Normandie Hotel while the Jorgensens are staying at the Courtland Hotel. Studsy Burke’s Pigiron club is another speakeasy the Charles’ frequent. Both Morelli and Nunheim are known there.
Beside a good murder mystery, The Thin Man is a book about café society during the Great Depression. Alcohol, though prohibited, flows freely and the social norm is for everyone to drink. "That afternoon I took Asta for a walk, explained to two people that she was a schnauzer and not a cross between a Scottie and an Irish terrier, stopped at Jim’s for a couple of drinks, ran into Larry Crowley, and brought him back to the Normandie with me." Hammett writes. "Nora was pouring cocktails for the Quinns. Margot Innes, a man whose name I did not catch, and Dorothy Wynant."
Finally, the book is a filled with witty repartee between Nick and Nora. The represent the perfect husband and wife detective team, Nora leading the charge, Nick being reluctantly dragged along for the ride. If you want a slice of early 20th Century Americana as seen through the eyes of a very clever detective, The Thin Man is a great read.
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