The glass key
The Glass Key (Engl. The Glass Key 1931 ) is a novel by Dashiell Hammett . This book is his fourth "hard novel" (see Hardboiled detective ) and his most political.
action
The novel is set in a city somewhere in the USA, ruled by a clique of corrupt, amoral men who are almost exclusively self-interested (the women get a little better off). Whether the senator who wants to get his re-election, the police chief who wants to keep his job, one or the other nightclub owner, crooks, gamblers or gamblers who fear for their advantages, or Paul Madvig, who holds most of the strings in his hand Except for the senator's daughter and his own, they are all deep in the swamp.
The hero of the book Ned Beaumont is an exception. He's no less selfish and amoral, but a little less corrupt, a little more loyal and, above all, not so deep in the swamp.
Conclusion
Here, after Red Harvest , Hammett takes for the second time in a novel the corruption and entanglement of American politics with organized gangsterism, as it probably prevailed at that time ( Prohibition ), as the subject of a novel.
Movie
- 1935: The Glass Key - (with George Raft )
- 1942: The Glass Key ( The Glass Key ) - (with Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd ), a key film of the film noir .
- 1990: Miller's Crossing - Directed and written by Ethan and Joel Coen (with Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney )