(Oh past self. Your earnestness slays me.)

I found Red Harvest enjoyable up until the last quarter of it when a plot twist completely threw me off. I won’t reveal much of the action, though, because the greatest strength of Red Harvest lies on its unpredictability. Also, the twist does get resolved elegantly at the end. I actually became more satisfied when I did a quick re-read and marveled at Hammett’s excellent plotting.

Red Harvest is told in first-person by the Continental Op, a nameless detective and a recurring character in many of Hammett’s stories. He stumbles into the mining town of Personville when a newspaperman contacted him for a job. The Op never finds out the nature of the job, though, as his client is murdered before they could even talk. The story then gets out of control as the Op searches for his client’s killer and he himself is sucked into the spiral of violence and corruption that gave the place its nickname "Poisonville."

What’s neat about the plot is that it’s actually a series of four mini-mysteries. Every time the Op succeeds in solving one of them, a bigger one gets thrown at him. Adding to the chaos is a cast of morally suspect characters trying to kill, pay, or trick him, sometimes all at the same time. All he could depend on is his cunning and his own personal brand of morality. The dialogue is top-class as well, smooth and sharp, exactly the way I like it. The Op’s voice is witty enough that it uplifted a certainly depressing portrait of the American small town, but cynical enough to remain believable. I just wish people still talk like that, all clipped and sexy.

My final verdict: this novel is pretty good. I just wish I wasn’t befuddled by that plot twist from the left field.