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Nightmare Town

Dashiell Hammett

1948190 pagesabout 3–4 hours
1948
first published
  • 1948Dell · 190 pages · ENG
  • 1999Knopf · 396 pages · ENGISBN 9780375401114
  • 2001Picador · 432 pagesISBN 9780330481090
  • 2002Picador · 416 pagesISBN 9780330481106
  • 2000Vintage · 432 pages · ENGISBN 9780375701023

"In the title story, a man on a bender enters a small town and ends up unraveling the dark mystery at its heart. A woman confronts the brutal truth about her husband in the chilling story "Ruffian's Wife." "His Brother's Keeper" is a half-wit boxer's eulogy to the brother who betrayed him. "The Second-Story Angel" recounts one of the most novel cons ever devised. In seven stories, the tough and taciturn Continental Op takes on a motley collection of the deceitful, the duped, and the dead, and once again shows his uncanny ability to get at the truth. In three stories, Sam Spade confronts the darkness in the human soul while rolling his own cigarettes. And the first study for The Thin Man sends John Guild on a murder investigation in which almost every witness may be lying."--BOOK JACKET.

How it feels

AtmosphereNoir

How it reads

Plot intensityEventful
CommitmentQuick escape

When and where

Reading situationCommuteWaiting
ThemesJustice

Content notesnot yet assessed

Quotesnone available

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