Negative Positive
Title: Classic detective fiction, but not the best Hammett
Review: "The Dain Curse" is a great read ; the dialogue is crisp and the story zings along at a great pace. The main problem with the book is the disjointed storyline ; the plot is subdivided into three sections, each with a self-contained storyline, linked up by the supposed curse around the leading female character, Gabrielle Leggett. The denoument of the book feels contrived ; I felt that Hammett had probably thought up the three separate plots and had (not completely successfully) attempted to link them together. However, this is a minor quibble ; the book is a great read and I would recommend it to all fans of detective fiction, although this may be a disappointment to those who have previously read "Red Harvest" or "The Maltese Falcon".
Is the review positive or negative? 