While we're on the subject of Hammett's work, I just finished
"Woman In The Dark", which was serialized in two installments
in Liberty magazine in 1933. It is interesting to note that
the piece of fiction he published after this was "The Thin
Man", and I think I can see why. This is a novelette (75
pages) that really doesn't seem to know what to do with
itself. There is good characterization and a promising start,
but the unconvincing ending seems slapped together, and
uneven. Had he been in better form/health, Hammett could have
fleshed this story out considerably, and he might have had
something here. As it is, it remains a flawed masterpiece
with too-swift transitions in the last ten or so pages.
It almost seems as if he ran out of gas and was just in a
hurry to finish and sell it. Anyone else read this one?
Thoughts?
Brian
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