The Continental Op
The Continental Op is another volume of short stories by Dashiell Hammett. These are stories of, naturally, The Continental Op, Hammett's short, stout and very hard-boiled operative for the Continental Detective Agency, San Francisco branch. As near as I can tell, these are the earliest Op stories, dating from the early 1920s. Written in first person, I find that they draw me in more strongly than Hammett's rather distanced third person work. Tough, blunt writing, with sharp humor but no nonsense. Writers, for both print and screen, are still copping licks from Hammett today.
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