The Dain Curse

Published in 1929, Dashiell Hammett’s second novel again follows his nameless Continental Op, this time through a tangle of stolen diamonds, a family that seems to carry a lethal curse, and a young woman, Gabrielle Dain Leggett, convinced she brings death to everyone near her. The case widens from a straightforward robbery into morphine addiction, a manipulative religious cult, and a run of killings that the Op has to explain away one plausible answer at a time. Stitched together from three linked Black Mask stories, the book is looser and stranger than Red Harvest, but it shows the same distrust of easy motives and tidy solutions. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available.