The dialogue between the detective and Harvey Gatewood is also important to the style of the piece. “I’ve never been clubbed into doing anything in my life! And I’m too old to start now!” characterises Mr Gatewood’s way of working. He does not accept professional advice easily and therefore life has not been made easy for the detective or for the reader.
Another way that Hammett puts excitement into the story is by having little unnecessary scene setting. He does this in the first few chapters by laying down the plot for the whole story: quickly introducing the client and the case and by using several short sentences in a row. The author is particularly successful at building tension as he conjures scenes of fast moving action especially at the crucial point where the ransom is to be dropped off. The characters must quickly devise a plan in this fraught situation to entrap or identify the captors. All four detectives and undercover police working on the job are put into place along the dimly lit streets and alleyways to shadow each other. At several points, people enter the scene and our suspicions are immediately aroused but they appear to be red herrings devised to build more tension and drama. The captor finally appears in the guise of a woman to lift the ransom and quickly disappears again, “….scuttled to the black mouth of an alley.”
To keep the audience curious and guessing about the outcome of the story, the author throws in several red herrings and twists at the end. When Gatewood’s daughter doesn’t return home after the payment has been made, the detective then starts to be suspicious of the authenticity of the kidnapping.
The plot unfolds to reveal that the daughter herself was behind the master plan. The reader is surprised although the clues have been evident i.e. the short time between her disappearance and the issue of the demands, the ransom note was in keeping with a female style of writing and the daughter and father were often ‘at daggers drawn’.
In Gatewood, Hammett successfully paints a picture of a demanding character who appears to be the stereotypical ‘gangster type’ business man, ie. physically imposing, domineering and larger than life, “a czar from the top of his bullet head to the toes of his shoes…..”. From the behaviour of his staff, ie. “…the obsequious clerk who had bowed me in bowed himself out” we know that he demands respect and compliance. Gatewood likes to be in control and his word is law. He is used to giving orders and having them obeyed and ‘railroads’ his way through business dealings, “He had made several millions by sandbagging everyone that stood in his way.” He is abrupt in his conversations with others, “…began to bark at me…”. Hammett’s descriptive skills are most evident in his portrayal of the enraged Gatewood i.e. “his wicked jaw was sticking out like a knob of granite” and “his eyes had an insane glare in them”.
Hammett has written this short story in the first person narrative. This makes the piece seem more believable to the reader but it also means that there is no descriptive phrases of the detective. Our understanding of this character unfolds through his dealings with Gatewood, his actions and also in his thoughts that are shared throughout the text. The author characterises the detective as calm, clever and professional. He seems to have had much experience in dealing with difficult clients and perhaps is in a position to be choosy, “For a while it looked as if the Continental Detective Agency was going to lose a client…”. From this we also understand that the detective will not be bullied by Gatewood, his position or wealth.
At the beginning of the text, Gatewood’s nineteen year old daughter, Audrey, is portrayed as a privileged and pampered only child who has suffered from a lack of parental control since her mother’s death. “She and her father didn’t hit it off very well together – their natures were too much alike…” indicates that they didn’t have a very close relationship – “he knew nothing of his daughter’s associates or habits” - and even when they did communicate, they were generally confrontational. By the conclusion of the story, where we understand that Audrey has masterminded the whole plot, we have a clearer picture of her personality. Due to her stubbornness and brusqueness, her conspirator also found her very difficult to deal with, “Took all my time and attention keeping her from running wild and gumming the works.” Not only is she conniving and deceitful but she is also vengeful, “If you’d been tied to him as long as I have and had been bullied and held down as much, I guess you’d do most anything to get enough money so that you could go away and live your own life.”
Of all the main characters, the one who shows most change is the father. Audrey displays the same behaviour throughout: selfish, unruly and spiteful. Even at the end of the short story, after the kidnapping has been foiled, she still tries to black mail her father. The detective also remains fairly constant in his
types of behaviour and attitudes because he is smart enough at the beginning to gather and act on limited information from a difficult source and also smart enough at the end to piece together all the clues and unravel the mystery. However, the father does display some uncharacteristic doubts about withholding the ransom after he receives a phone call from his kidnapped daughter, “But he said it mechanically, without his usual conviction – the talk with his daughter had shaken him out of some of his stubbornness. He was thinking of her safety now instead of only his own fighting spirit.” His determination to have things his own way has slipped and he eventually pays the ransom. This perhaps shows that he has come to realise that he cares: that perhaps family is more important than money. I suspect Audrey did not think that her kidnapping would affect her father mentally as it did. She just hoped that the father she despised so much would pay up.
Because of Dashiell Hammett’s literary skill, The Gatewood Caper is more than just an example of the detective story genre. The characters are believable but not too predictable. He creates an atmospheric story in which the reader is thrown off course despite the obvious clues which are central to solving the mystery. The plot and action hold the reader’s interest until the final conclusion where the twist is revealed.
