“I was leaning against the bar in the speakeasy on Fifty-second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping, when a girl got up from the table where she had been sitting with three other people and came over to me.”

The grace of the opening sentence is an example of Hammett’s clear, efficient style. Not only does the reader get character clues, but the inciting incident also happens immediately. It tells the reader this isn’t the usual hardboiled detective novel. That the protagonist is a patient, married man and it’s the holidays diverge from the usual gritty world of the genre.

“Nora, coming in to answer the telephone, looked questioningly at me. I made a face at her over the girl’s head.”

Early in the novel, Hammett sets up the easy dynamic between Nick and Nora. Nora walks in on Nick and Dorothy embracing. The married couple’s response shows the trust and humor with which they treat one another. That Nora is never jealous of her husband’s behavior neutralizes Dorothy’s grasping nature, and so Dorothy directs her anger toward her mother rather than Nora.

“‘But besides I haven’t the time: I’m too busy trying to see that you don’t lose any of the money I married you for.’ I kissed her. ‘Don’t you think maybe a drink would help you to sleep?’

‘No, thanks.’

‘Maybe it would if I took one.’”

This dialog is typical of the couple’s banter, which shows them playing off each other with humor and ease. The fact that Nick is after a drink is typical, as every scene in the first half of the book has him with a drink in his hand or finding one. This scene takes place at five in the morning after they’ve been sleeping for a few hours and before breakfast.