血的收获 (1927)

Red Harvest is a 1929 novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett. The story is narrated by the Continental Op, a frequent character in Hammett's fiction, much of which is drawn from his own experiences as an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency (fictionalized as the Continental Detective Agency). The plot follows the Op's investigation of several murders in a Montana mining town, which had been taken over by gangs following a labor dispute. Some of the novel was inspired by the Anaconda Road massacre, a 1920 labor dispute in the mining town of Butte, Montana.

Time included Red Harvest in its 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005, noting that, in the Continental Op, Hammett "created the prototype for every sleuth who would ever be called 'hard-boiled.'" The Nobel Prize-winning author André Gide called the book "a remarkable achievement, the last word in atrocity, cynicism, and horror."

Plot

The Continental Op is called to Personville (known as "Poisonville" to the locals) by the newspaper publisher Donald Willsson. Willsson had mailed the Continental Detective Agency a $5,000 check to retain their services, but Willsson is shot to death in an alley before the Op has a chance to meet with him. The Op meets Donald's wife, who is suspicious of why her husband has employed the Op. Mrs. Willsson leaves and is later seen near her husband's body immediately following his death. The Op begins to investigate Willsson's murder and meets with Willsson's father, Elihu Willsson, a local industrialist who has found his control of the city threatened by several competing gangs. Elihu had originally invited those gangs into Personville to help him impose and then enforce the end of a labor dispute. Elihu is also immediately certain that Mrs. Willsson is responsible for Donald's murder.

In addition to the $5,000 check from the late Donald Willsson, the Op gets another $5,000 certified check from Elihu Willsson to "clean up the city" and rid it of the gangs controlling it. The Op quickly identifies Donald's murderer as young bank teller Robert Albury, a murder that had nothing to do with gang activity or, as Elihu was certain of, Donald's wife. The murder mystery now sewn up, Elihu tries to get his money back and tells the Op to forget about taking down the gangs, but the Op insists he will follow through. While the Op had been investigating, the corrupt police chief Noonan had tried twice to have him gunned down, causing the Op to take a personal interest in the job.

In the meantime, the Op is spending time with Dinah Brand, a possible love interest of the late Donald Willsson and a moll for Max "Whisper" Thaler, a local gangster. The Op extracts information from Brand and Noonan, and increases tension in the city by leaking it to the warring parties. When the Op reveals that a bank robbery was staged by the cops and one of the gangs to discredit another gang, a gang war erupts.

The Op, disturbed by the slaughter he orchestrated, spends an evening of blackout inebriation with Brand, who finds it all amusing. He wakes the next morning to find her stabbed to death with the ice pick he had handled the previous evening. No signs of forced entry are visible, and he can't even be sure he did not do the stabbing himself during his delirium. The Op becomes a suspect sought by the police for Brand's murder, and one of his fellow operatives, Dick Foley, leaves Personville because he is uncertain of the Op's innocence.

The Op, now wanted by the police, entices Reno Starkey, a gang lieutenant, to take on the last strong rival gang led by Pete the Finn. The gangs are whittled down by pipe bombs, arson, gun fights, and corrupt cops gunning down the survivors.

The Op tracks down Starkey, the only gang leader still alive. Starkey is bleeding from four gunshot wounds, having just killed his rival Whisper Thaler. Starkey reveals that he was the one who stabbed Brand, but because she had collided with the semiconscious Op he had looked like the culprit. Starkey later succumbs to his wounds in the hospital.

The corrupt police chief Noonan and the gang leaders are all dead. The Op blackmails Elihu Willsson, having obtained four love letters Elihu had sent to Dinah Brand. The Op gets Elihu to call the governor, who sends in the National Guard, declares martial law, and suspends the entire police force. Elihu Willsson gets back his town, as promised, although not in the way that he had anticipated. The Op returns to San Francisco, where the Old Man (the chief of the Continental Detective Agency's office) criticizes him.

Serial publication

Red Harvest was originally serialized in four installments in the pulp magazine Black Mask:

Part 1: "The Cleansing of Poisonville", Black Mask, November 1927

Part 2: "Crime Wanted—Male or Female", Black Mask, December 1927

Part 3: "Dynamite", Black Mask, January 1928

Part 4: "The 19th Murder", Black Mask, February 1928

Adaptations

Film critics David Desser and Manny Farber, among others, have noted similarities between Red Harvest and the 1961 film Yojimbo, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Other scholars, such as Donald Richie, believe the similarities are coincidental. Kurosawa said that a major source for Yojimbo was the film noir classic The Glass Key (1942), an adaptation of Hammett's 1931 novel of the same name. In Red Harvest, The Glass Key, and Yojimbo, corrupt officials and businessmen stand behind and profit from the rule of gangsters.