Red Harvest Review

Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" opens the door into a California town called Personville, in which the Op takes part of a job to clean the town up. After being called for a job, Hammett's protagonist opens and exposes the town after a critical murder.

Hammett keeps the reader engaged with character shifts and plot twists at a page's turn. Hammett shows an abnormal, yet extraordinary, approach by the Op's identity a being unknown through the book, and exposing the character's true thoughts and emotional changes. Hammett keeps your pulse pumping with each word while still satisfying the reader's perception of justice and killing. Hammett's views and meanings in the book coincide with the text, resulting in a true emotional attachment, sympathy, and hatred toward characters. Despite keeping the text reserved to only the events in Personville, Hammett shows the harsh decisions a detective has to make, and the cruel world of mobs and gangs. The reader feels the world of Personville crumbling around him as the Op digs deeper into the twisted,corrupted web of the town.

"Red Harvest" has the traditional detective feel, with a fresh breath. The book flows through moral decisions such as following regulations, the "fun" of killing, and true allies. As the Op solves the murder and cleans the town(with the help of some alcohol), the reader is bound to be swept away as the Op retells his views of the case, and how he was unwilling to keep with the codes. After reading "Red Harvest", you will never be able to view Sherlock Holmes as the true detective.      

Red Harvest Reading Quiz: Top 10

Ten reading Questions from Chapter 1-16

1. Why does Noonan hate Thaler?

2. What does Mcswain say that is a game-changer?

3.Why doe Elihu want the gangsters gone, and why did he bring them in the first place?

4. Due to the "fixed" boxing match, what happens to the inhabitants of Poisonville?

5. What does the Op send Dick and Mickey to do, and is it important?

6. How does the shootout with Thaler, at Dinah's, end?

7. What was going on while the Op and Noonan were at Cedar Hill Inn?

8. What does the Op tell Mickey and Dick to do if they want to send deatils of the job to the Old Man?

9. What happens when the Op goes to talk to Thaler at his place?

10. How killed Donald?

Prediction for Red Harvest #2

Based off what we have learned that the Donald's case has been closed and the Op has not gone rouge yet, I believe the rest of the book will be less gruesome than first predicted. I believe that keeping Noonan and Thaler separated will not go as planned and Noonan will get whiff of Thaler's location. Then Noonan will somehow realize that the Op purposely kept it a secret and will try to kill him. Meanwhile, the Op is slowly pitting the gangsters against themselves and watching them fall one by one. As the money starts to get low, he will ask Elihu for more. His co-workers, Dick and Mickey, will start leaking information to the Agency and the Old Man either go to Poisonvlle himself or tell Dick and Mickey to take him out. Either option will result in the outcome of the the Op going rouge for his own life, even after the gangster are dead. Noonan and the Old Man might team up to take out the Op. Thaler will somehow have stayed alive and the Op and Thaler team up, against Noonan and the Agency. There will be several quick fights, but the main characters will eventually have a final fight where, Thaler, Noonan, and the Old Man all get killed. The Op, now realizing that even the agency is corrupt, resigns and moves on to be a man for hire.