Red Harvest

Red Harvest is narrated from the first-person perspective of a professional detective. Despite his role as the narrator, the detective never shares his name with the audience. He remains anonymous throughout the book, offering only patently fake names to anyone he meets. At other times, he operates under the title “the Op,” a reference to his job at the Continental Detective agency. The use of a title rather than a name speaks to the Op’s function in the story. He is a detective; his role is to investigate the crimes rather than to explain the situation to the reader. 

The Op embraces his anonymity, which represents the guarded nature of his character. From his first conversations in Personville, the Op lies and misrepresents the truth. He refuses to allow anyone to know exactly what he knows. Anonymity gives him protection. He trusts no one, not even the reader, creating an atmosphere of cynicism and paranoia that permeates the novel. 

The Op’s paranoia becomes particularly acute when he realizes that he is beginning to enjoy the violence. He admits to killing people before, but this is the first time that he has “the fever.