Book Description

The illustrated introduction of this book reviews briefly Dashiell Hammett as a writer and the first stories of the Continental Op, one of his most enduring creation.Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hardboiled detective novels and short stories. He created enduring characters such as Sam Spade ("The Maltese Falcon"), Nick and Nora Charles ("The Thin Man"), and the Continental Op, a never named insurance investigator ("Red Harvest," "The Dain Curse," and numerous short stories). Hammett is widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time. "The New York Times," called him "the dean of the hardboiled school of detective fiction," although, technically, John Carroll Daly was the first to write a story in the hardboiled style and to create, with Terry Mack and Race Williams, the first hardboiled private eyes. The very first five stories by Hammett were Continental Op stories, some written under the pseudonym of Peter Collinson, and all published in "Black Mask" toward the end of 1923. Later on, the stories were collected and republished in book form.This eBook contains all first five stories as originally published in "Black Mask": "Arson Plus," written under the pseudonym of Peter Collinson, "Black Mask," October 1, 1923; "Crooked Souls" (also known as "The Gatewood Caper"), "Black Mask," October 1, 1923; "Slippery Fingers", written under the pseudonym of Peter Collinson, "Black Mask," October 15, 1923; "It" (also known as "The Black Hat That Wasn't There"), "Black Mask," November 1, 1923; and "Bodies Piled Up" (also known as "The House Dick"), "Black Mask," December 1, 1923.