Red Harvest

Red Harvest (1929) is a detective novel by American author Dashiell Hammett. The plot is loosely based on the Anaconda Road massacre, a 1920 labor dispute that escalated after a mining company fired upon its miners who were on strike, wounding 16 men and killing another. In 2005, Time magazine named Red Harvest one of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. The novel has influenced many works of noir fiction. 

This guide uses the 2012 Orion Books edition. 

Content Warning: The source text contains consistently heavy violence throughout its narrative, including instances of domestic violence.

Plot Summary

Donald Willsson, a newspaper publisher in the mining town of Personville, calls upon an unnamed detective who is also the narrator of the book. The detective is only ever referred to as the “Continental Op”—the Op—because he is a member of the Continental Detective Agency, a group loosely based on the real-life Pinkerton Detective Agency of which Hammett himself was an operative. 

The Continental Op arrives in Personville, a small mining city that is referred to by locals as “Poisonville” due to the widespread corruption. The Op makes plans to meet with Willsson. Willsson's wife answers the door in a green dress and green shoes. She tells the Op that Willsson is running late, so they sit down to an awkward conversation that is interrupted by a mysterious telephone call. Willsson’s wife drives away without explaining why, then returns 45 minutes later. She is still alone, with no sign of her husband. There is, however, what appears to be blood on her green shoes.

Later that night, the Op learns from a crowd at City Hall that Donald Willsson was shot dead in the street. He also learns about the history of Personville from Bill Quint. Quint tells him that Donald's father, industrialist Elihu Willsson, had run the town for decades without incident until World War I, when the miners who were the lifeblood of the town's industry decided to go on strike. Elihu turned to various criminals to suppress the unhappy workers. However, the gunmen turned against Elihu, demanding that he share his power in the town, otherwise they would expose him in public. 

Ever since, Elihu has been a puppet for four immensely corrupt individuals who are really in charge: Bootlegger Pete the Finn, chief of police Noonan, bail bondsman Lew Yard, and gambler Max "Whisper" Thaler. All are conceivable suspects in Willsson's murder, as he had been working to expose their misdeeds in an article for his newspaper. The Op accepts a $10,000 proposal from Elihu to clean up the corruption in Personville by whatever method he chooses. 

The Op's investigation brings him into close contact with a number of Personville's underworld figures, including Whisper's girlfriend, Dinah Brand. According to many people, Brand is only interested in money, and she knows how to seduce men into giving her their wealth. The Op surmises that Noonan is trying to frame Dinah and Whisper for Donald's death. 

Meanwhile, another dead body surfaces, this time at Elihu's house. The man is Yakima Shorty, a criminal working for Whisper who apparently has been shot by Elihu in self-defense. However, the Op still does not believe Whisper is the killer. Therefore, as Noonan closes in on Whisper, the Op buys some time to find the real killer by allowing Thaler to escape Noonan's clutches.

The real killer, the Op discovers, is an assistant cashier at the local bank named Robert Albury, who was involved in a scheme to scam $5,000 from Donald. He felt that the money would be the only way to attract attention from his former romantic partner, Dinah Brand. When the Op presents this information to Elihu, he attempts to go back on the deal he made with the Op. By this time, however, the Op has become invested in the project to rid Personville of corruption. Somebody is clearly not happy about the Op's meddling because gunshots are fired in his direction one night outside his hotel. 

The Op learns about Whisper’s attempts to fix a boxing match between Kid Cooper and a man named Bush. The Op discovers that Bush is Al Kennedy, a wanted criminal. The Op uses this information to compel Bush not to fix the fight. At the fight, Bush knocks out Kid Cooper and is killed in the ring by one of Whisper’s men. All this time, the Op is engaged in an increasingly romantic affair with Dinah. He has a less easy time with her friend, the sickly Dan Rolff, whom he believes is in love with Dinah. 

Perhaps worrying about her self-preservation should Whisper find out about the affair, Dinah informs the Op that Thaler murdered a man named Tim some years ago and that a policeman, MacSwain, helped cover it up, making it look like a death by suicide. The Op convinces Tim's ailing onetime girlfriend, Myrtle, to sign an affidavit that fingers Whisper as Tim's murderer. He believes that Noonan will want to use this confession to take down Whisper and thus eliminate one of his enemies. The Op hopes that, by driving wedges between the powerful figures of the Personville underworld, he can get them to destroy one another and bring peace to the town. 

As the Op becomes increasingly stressed and overworked by the case, he complains to Dinah about the effect this is having on his personality. He fears that he is beginning to like the violence and brutality that surround him. To help him sleep, Dinah suggests that he take some of Rolff’s laudanum. The Op mixes it with his gin and falls into an anxious sleep. He suffers from nightmares that seem almost real.

When the Op wakes up, he finds an ice pick in his hand. The other end of the ice pick is buried inside Dinah. She is dead. Worrying that he is being framed for her murder, he slips away and asks Reno for an alibi. Reno is soon locked in his own war as he vies for power and control against the other criminal elements of Personville. The Op tries to hold a peace conference and convinces Noonan to summon the other powerful figures to Elihu’s house. There, he tells them the brutal truth about how they are trying to betray and blame one another. He insists that they need to find common ground while knowing that they will immediately turn on one another. 

Soon after the peace conference is over, the Op learns that Noonan is dead. Amid the violence, he hears that Whisper has been shot and that Rolff was forced into hospital with a fractured skull, only to escape and go missing. Believing that he can solve the murder, the Op searches for Rolff. He finds him in a warehouse, dead. Also in the room is Reno. As the Op entered, Reno was killing the already-wounded Whisper.

As Reno lies dying, he explains the truth to the Op. Reno admits to killing Dinah after Whisper ambushed him in her house. Dinah’s death was accidental, he claims. During the chaotic moment, the Op burst into the room, wracked by laudanum dreams. Reno assures the Op that the Op did not kill Dinah. 

With so many criminals dead, Personville has a chance to return to normalcy. The Op worries that he is a wanted man, however, so he goes into hiding until he can be sure that he will not be prosecuted. He returns to San Francisco, where the boss of his detective agency criticizes him for his methods.