A private eye receives a call to come to Personville, an unruly town nicknamed Poisonville, only to find himself wrapped up in a murder investigation.

That’s just the beginning.

Red Harvest is an intriguing piece of writing – especially since it was written in 1929 – and is often credited with launching the hard-boiled detective movement.

The writing is crisp and slangy. The settings are dark and dingy. The plot has more turns than a drunken corkscrew. The characters are corrupted, unlikeable, or both. And the unnamed protagonist is hell-bent on destruction.

And maybe that’s why it's so popular, and so divisive.

We're not a fan of the novel but it's revered in many circles.

After a quick Internet search, you’ll see that Red Harvest inspired the likes of directors Bernardo Bertolucci, George Lucas and the Coen Brothers.

TIME magazine also gushed over the work, at one point calling it one of the best 100 English-language novels since 1923.

To us, the story – originally published as a four-part serial – plods along with the antics of endless anti-heroes.

But Red Harvest is such a historic book, with an impressive fan base, that ultimately we think it's best for you to judge.

To be safe, buy it in this $40 compendium - which features some of Hammett's other beloved stories such as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man.

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Library of America