The Glass Key (1931)

The Glass Key is a novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. First published as a serial in Black Mask magazine in 1930, it then was collected in 1931 (in London; the American edition followed 3 months later). It tells the story of a gambler and racketeer, Ned Beaumont, whose devotion to Paul Madvig, a crooked political boss, leads him to investigate the murder of a local senator's son as a potential gang war brews. Hammett dedicated the novel to his onetime lover Nell Martin.

There have been two US film adaptations (1935 and 1942) of the novel. A radio adaptation starring Orson Welles aired on March 10, 1939, as part of his Campbell Playhouse series. The book was also a major influence on the Coen brothers' 1990 film Miller's Crossing, which features a similar scenario.

The Glass Key Award (in Swedish, Glasnyckeln), named after the novel, has been presented annually since 1992 for the best crime novel by a Scandinavian writer.

Plot summary

The story revolves around Ned Beaumont. Beaumont is best friend, confidant, and political advisor to the criminal political boss Paul Madvig. Ned finds the body of a senator's son on the street, and Madvig asks him to thwart the D.A.'s investigation, his motive being that he wants to back the corrupt senator in order to marry his daughter, Janet. Ned goes to New York searching for Bernie, a bookie who owes him a great deal of money from a gambling debt, but ends up getting beaten up.

Someone sends a series of letters to people close to the crime, hinting that Madvig was the murderer. Suspicion for this falls on Madvig's daughter Opal, the victim's girlfriend. Madvig's political base begins to crumble when he refuses to spring a follower's brother from jail. The follower goes to rival mob boss Shad O'Rory, who eliminates a witness to the brother's crime. Madvig then declares war on O'Rory, who offers to bribe Beaumont to expose Madvig in the newspaper. Beaumont refuses, is knocked unconscious and wakes captive in a dingy room where he is beaten daily.

Hospitalized after his escape, Beaumont tells Madvig and Janet that he was laying a trap for O'Rory; he then struggles out of bed to stop the newspaper from printing its exposé. Beaumont confronts O'Rory, the publisher, and Madvig's daughter Opal. The publisher commits suicide after Beaumont seduces his wife.

Next Beaumont interviews Janet, discovering that she wrote the letters and that the Senator knew about the murder before Beaumont found the body. A new clue points to Madvig and when confronted he confesses but he cannot account for the victim's hat, a detail Beaumont pointedly repeats throughout the novel.

This impasse and Beaumont's growing interest in Janet, Madvig's love interest, cause a second rift between the men. Beaumont and Janet pair up to solve the murder. Beaumont uncovers evidence proving the senator killed his own son and turns him over to the police. Beaumont confronts Madvig with his new discovery, and the two depart, not enemies but no longer friends.

Characters

Ned Beaumont — gambler and amateur detective who finds Taylor Henry's body

Paul Madvig — crooked political boss, who backs Senator Henry because he is in love with Janet; best friend of Ned Beaumont

Sen. Ralph Bancroft Henry — up for reelection; father of Taylor and Janet and the murderer of Taylor

Janet Henry — daughter of Senator Henry; hates Madvig and falls in love with Ned

Shad O'Rory — Madvig's rival, a gangster, who has Ned brutally beaten for refusing to help frame Paul; killed by Jeff

Bernie Despain — gambler who owes Ned money and whom Ned suspects of having murdered Taylor Henry

Jack Rumsen — private detective hired by Ned to trail Bernie

Michael Farr — District Attorney, in the pocket of Paul Madvig

Jeff Gardner — O'Rory's bodyguard, who beats Ned and later strangles O'Rory

Themes

As noted by the literary critic James F. Maxfield, "Hammett employs an objective approach, merely reporting the conversations and describing the surface actions of his characters, never directly presenting their thoughts and feelings". This leaves some ambiguity in the reasoning of Ned Beaumont's actions, such as his suspicions about Janet Henry's father. This makes it hard to determine the nature of Ned's relationship with Janet. While there is disagreement about whether or not they are together at the end, the fact that there is a relationship at all is indicative of "a different kind of hero".

Beaumont compared to other Hammett heroes

Ned Beaumont does not fit the popular, famous archetype of Jung, nor the weaker, less altruistic "hero" type of Hammett's other works, but is altogether different from either.

Hammett's detectives usually avoid relationships, but Ned is different. He does not possess the sort of "immunity" to emotional ties that the author's 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".