The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, Red Harvest (Everyman's Library Classics)

Hammett had a huge influence on crime writing in the interwar years. His incisive style and believable dialogue came not from a literary upbringing but from a career as a private investigator cut short by health problems incurred during World War I. Because of the gritty realism that imbues his novels, he was admired by readers and writers alike, earning praise from Gertrude Stein and Raymond Chandler (who claimed Hammett had 'given murder back to the kind of people that commit it'), among others. The Maltese Falcon, considered by many to be his best, first appeared in serial form in Black Mask magazine in 1929, and was published as a book the following year; it is celebrated for its evenly sustained tension and its colourful cast of characters. The Thin Man is perhaps his most popular for its witty portrayal of New York's sophisticated cafe society during Prohibition. In Red Harvest, Henry Neill's client gets poisoned in Personville, and he might just have been the last honest person in town. Crime novel lovers are in for a treat. (Kirkus UK)