The Glass Key

The Glass Key

Cover of the first edition
Author	Dashiell Hammett
Language	English
Genre	Crime
Published	1931 (Alfred A. Knopf)
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	214
Preceded by	The Maltese Falcon
Followed by	The Thin Man

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.^[1] 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.