'The Thin Man'

Dashiell Hammett published five novels. I've read three. The Thin Man was his final one and the last one I've read.

Hammett wouldn't write again. Twenty-seven years from the time The Thin Man was published and his death in 1961.

The Thin Man was made into a very famous and well-regarded film starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. Maybe one of the few times the film is as good as the book, or vice versa. There were many sequels to the films in addition to a TV series.

The Thin Man has a very different tone from a lot of Hammett's other works. The protagonist is actually a couple, Nick and Nora Charles, the former being a retired detective sucked into a case involving some acquaintances seemingly invading his home. Nora is a precocious, liberated and smart woman. Really, if you want an early flag bearer for the feminist movement in literature, how can you not include Nora Charles. If there's anyone that doesn't answer to anyone in the whole story, it's her.

This is an easy-going narrative. The Charleses are wise-cracking know-it-alls seemingly viewing this thread of murder, deceit and manipulation like spectators at a Civil War battle. They tend to rise above it and do not get caught up in the fray (except for getting grazed by a bullet) unlike some of Hammett's other detectives.