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Continental Op Stories

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Pages: 794

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About this book

Dashiell Hammett introduced the Continental Op, a short, heavyset, nameless operative for the Continental Detective Agency, in the pages of the pulp magazine Black Mask during the 1920s. These stories collect his cases: blackmail, missing persons, gang wars, and murders solved not by brilliant deduction but by legwork, nerve, and a knack for setting rival crooks against one another. Drawing on Hammett's own years as a Pinkerton detective, the Op narrates in a flat, unshowy voice that helped invent the hard-boiled style later carried on by Raymond Chandler and countless others. Violent, cynical, and quietly funny, they remain some of the sharpest crime writing of their era. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available.

About the author

Dashiell Hammett

Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, The Continental Op and the comic strip character Secret Agent X-9.