The Thin Man

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my second Hammett novel and I really enjoyed it. I did find it impossible not to picture William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora, but that didn't detract as they were perfectly cast.
Nick Charles is a former private detective who gets pulled into the drama of the Wynant family when he and Nora visit NYC. They visit speakeasies, have drinks at the apartments of various friends, and entertain assorted visitors (with more drinks) at their hotel as they unravel the whereabouts of Clyde Wynant. In the middle of the novel Hammett inserts the story of A. G. Packer the "maneater," which several reviews I read thought was superfluous, but which seems to me to be an insight into the case at hand, not factually, but in terms of the behavior of the involved parties.
The novel was published in 1934, and I am counting it toward the Back to the Classics challenge in the category of "a classic detective novel."