previous detectives had maintained, such as the Continental Op in Hammett's Red Harvest. Because of this supposed relationship between Ned and Janet, The Glass Key takes on a more traditional story line, that of the detective "hero" and his beautiful heroine, ending with a ride into the sunset of New York. According to Maxfield, "Neither the Op nor [Hammett's detective character] Sam Spade would have gone off with Janet, for as detectives they both strove to be ruled as much as possible by reason. But Beaumont is a gambler instead of a detective, a man used to taking risks. Just as he continues to bet while he is on a losing streak, he is willing to make another kind of wager on Janet, despite the great odds of the relationship ending badly. Because he is willing to accept the risks that human commitments entail, Beaumont is, if not Hammett's ideal hero, his most completely human hero". The Great Depression, small-town morality, and "luck" A more obvious theme in The Glass Key shows itself through the characters and their respective moralities. The novel is set in an unnamed city, a more unassuming place—a smaller, less sophisticated location—than his previous novels. It is thus a locale more obviously open to corruption. Here are elected officials, community figures, and the like who participate in conspiracies of a type more often considered endemic to the underworld. Because of this, the characters openly display more animalistic qualities than in Hammett's previous novels. The characters, perhaps through the objectivity of the writing style, are portrayed as cutthroat and almost feral. One reason for their apparent slippage into violence is most likely related to the early onset of the Great Depression, as the novel was published in 1931. The loss of "luck," as described in the novel ("What good am I if my luck’s gone?" He asks. "You might as well take your punishment and get it over with") is another deciding factor in the actions of the characters. The novel is similar in that respect to later Depression-era novels, such as The Postman Always Rings Twice. Writing style Hammett's distinctive and groundbreaking style helped usher in the hardboiled genre. The Glass Key, written in Hammett's later noir years, is a prime example of his stylistic power. Raymond Chandler, a 20th-century author and critic, discussed Hammett's sense of the modern world in The Glass Key: William Kennedy,