A review by tasharobinson
The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett

2.0

Easily the weakest of Hammett's novels, this one was published as a serial, and reads like Hammett wrote most of it without a plan, then circled around to try to tie it up in any way possible at the end. The novel starts with a promisingly unusual diamond theft, but before long, everyone near the diamonds is delivering long, rambling, unlikely confessions and then dying. Where Hammett's other novels are gritty and realistic, this one goes into silly, lurid territory involving hypnotist cultists and human sacrifices (sort of), and still more long, rambling confessions. Then there's a murder mystery, which ultimately seems to implicate everyone in town—which they tend to admit in long, rambling confessions, half of which are false, and ill-justified. The plot twists come across as random and arbitrary, and by the time the book ends—with a long, rambling confession, naturally—the whole book seems like an exercise in mildly interesting setups followed by unlikely tell-don't-show endings. I read Red Harvest in one sitting. This one took me weeks, because I couldn't muster up the interest to get back to it. Hammett wrote five novels. All four of the other ones are much, much better than this.