Dashiell Hammett

The Glass Key

Hard-boiled detective novel of political corruption and blackmail in a small American city

About the author

Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett

Dashiell Hammett pioneered hard-boiled detective fiction, drawing on his real-life experience as a Pinkerton detective. His lean, unsentimental prose and morally ambiguous characters transformed the detective story from a puzzle into a social document. Sam Spade and the Continental Op remain two of crime fiction's most iconic characters.

More by Dashiell Hammett