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The Continental Op (Vintage Crime) by Dashiell Hammett
About the Author Dashiell Samuel Hammett was born in St. Mary’s County. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Hammett left school at the age of fourteen and held several kinds of jobs thereafter—messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, operator, and stevedore, finally becoming an operative for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Sleuthing suited young Hammett, but World War I intervened, interrupting his work and injuring his health. When Sergeant Hammett was discharged from the last of several hospitals,...  read more Book Description The Continental Op, the prototype for generations of tough-guy detectives, unravels a murder with too many clues and tangles with a crooked-eared gunman in these stories. Reader Reviews Not a good as The Thin Man - but good!, October 24, 2003 Reviewer: karieh from Everett, WA USA So I absolutely ADORE the Thin Man movies, and liked the novel The Thin Man - so I had to read more of Hammett's work. This collection of short stories featuring the unnamed Continental Op was good beach type reading that wasn't cheesy. The stories are the traditional "hard-boiled detective meets gorgeous broad gone wrong" type - by the man who invented the genre (something I learned in the fascinating intro!) Fast-paced and well written - this a great book to take on an airplane/sit by a Las Vegas casino pool - and one that doesn't leave you with cavities or a cheese hangover. (Also - for fans of the Thin Man movie series - the last story might seem VERY familiar...) Read up!
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