I’m not proud to admit that I was completely lost for the first half of the book. As much as I love Hammett’s writing it’s borderline incomprehensible - or maybe I’m just not that smart. But then everything clicked and the ending hit at a thousand miles a second. Since the only other Hammett I’ve read is Red Harvest, it was interesting to see how Ned Beaumont spent the whole book trying to protect his friend (I say “friend”, but you could do a great queer analysis of this book). The way Hammett’s clinical prose copes with such a human protagonist (especially compared to the nihilistic Continental Op in Harvest) is fascinating and makes Beaumont the highlight of The Glass Key.