Reading in the Garden

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man , is a hardboiled detective novel first published in Redbook Magazine in 1933, then book format in 1934. It stars the dynamic couple, Nick and Nora Charles with their dog, Asta.    After a woman’s bullet-riddled body is found in a New York City apartment, Nick is reluctantly pulled in to investigate while on vacation in the Big Apple. He’s long retired from being a private eye, but his reputation precedes him and people are asking him left and right to dig into the homicide.    Set at Christmas-time 1932 during Prohibition, they were anything but dry. Nick, Nora, and even the police Lieutenant, were sucking down drinks like air, and not just in speakeasys, but in the hotel, apartments, and the Lieutenant even offered Nick a drink at the station. Before breakfast Nick asks Nora “How about a drop of something to cut the phlegm?”    You’d think someone so pickled wouldn’t be able to function, bu...