Novel
The characters first appear in Dashiell Hammett's best-selling last novel The Thin Man (1934). Nick is an alcoholic former private detective who retired when he married Nora, a wealthy Nob Hill heiress. Hammett reportedly modeled Nora on his longtime partner Lillian Hellman, and the characters' boozy, flippant repartee on their relationship. (The novel also mentions that Nick was once a Pinkerton, as was Hammett.) The novel is considered one of the seminal texts of the hard-boiled sub-genre of mystery novels, but the chief innovation distinguishing it from previous Hammett works such as The Maltese Falcon or The Glass Key was its relative lightness and humor. It is nearly as much a comedy of manners as a mystery, and the story tumbles along to the sarcastic banter of Nick and Nora as a reluctant and jaded Nick is dragged into solving a sensational murder, cheered on by the fascinated thrill-enjoying Nora.
Read more about this topic: Nick And Nora Charles