I love The Thin Man films. Starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as married detective duo Nick and Nora Charles – not forgetting loyal Schnauzer Asta – they are an absolute wisecracking joy.

So I don’t really know why it has taken me so long to read Dashiell Hammet’s final novel, published in 1934 (the first of the films was released the same year), but I’m very glad to have finally got to it.

Nick Charles is a former New York private eye, now married to wealthy Nora and living in California, running his father-in-law’s business interests. He is back on the East Coast for Christmas when he runs into Dorothy in a bar (Nick is constantly drinking alcohol despite the story taking place in 1932, before the end of Prohibition) whom he knew as a child, and she now needs his help to find her missing scientist father.

Nick is reluctant, but his wife Nora is more open-minded:

“There’s nothing I can do to help her.”

“She thinks you can.”

“And so do you, which shows that no matter what you think, you can always get somebody else to go along with you.”

Nora sighed. “I wish you were sober enough to talk to.” She leaned over to take a sip of my drink. “I’ll give you your Christmas present now if you’ll give me mine.”

I shook my head. “At breakfast.”

“But it’s Christmas now.”

“Breakfast.”

“Whatever you’re giving me,” she said, “I hope I don’t like it.”

“You’ll have to keep them anyway, because the man at the aquarium said he positively wouldn’t take them back. He said they’d already bitten the tails off the -“

“It wouldn’t hurt you any to find out if you can help her, would it? She’s got so much confidence in you, Nicky.”

This captures so much of the comedic tone of the novel. Nick and Nora’s constantly teasing, fond relationship underpinned by respect, and the fact they do truly listen to one another is what gives the story heart. (Admittedly it also captures how their relationship is underpinned by relentless alcohol consumption!)

Despite Nick’s reluctance, it isn’t long before he’s drawn into the mystery and the various machinations of Dorothy’s family, which results in a murder of the scientist’s assistant/mistress, and gangsters with guns rapidly appearing:

“So far I had known just where I stood on the Wolf-Wynant-Jorgensen troubles and what I was doing – the answers were, respectively, nowhere and nothing – but when we stopped at Reuben’s for coffee on our way home at four the next morning, Nora opened a newspaper and found a line in one of the gossip columns: “Nick Charles, former Trans-American Detective Agency ace, on from Coast to sift the Julia Wolf murder mystery”; and when I opened my eyes and sat up in bed some six hours later Nora was shaking me and a man with a gun in his hand was standing in the bedroom doorway.”

What follows is good fun, with speakeasys, red herrings, a genuinely terrifying mother, comedic turns from villains, and world-weary wisecracks from Nick.

The novel is over ninety years old and so attitudes have dated, not least towards women (the phrase “feminine brainstorms” was a particular favourite of mine) and towards mental illness; Nora makes several baffling references to Nick’s Greek heritage; and there is one use of a racial slur. But none of these instances are the focus of the story, or attempted to be validated.

Generally with these types of novels I’ve been conditioned by Raymond Chandler to forget the plot and enjoy the ride, but actually, The Thin Man does hold together, albeit reliant on a lot of exposition by Nick in the final few pages. If you fancy a hardboiled read but on the comedic rather than noirish side of things, with a witty heroine and a very appealing Schanuzer, then this is one for you.

Although… I must admit this is a rare instance where I think the film is better! The dialogue is snappier, the plot leaner and the chemistry and charisma of the two main stars (plus Asta) is just phenomenal. So even if you don’t fancy the book, I would urge you to see the film 😊

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

“Not unless you’re in a hurry. Let’s stick around awhile. This excitement has put us behind in our drinking.””