Editors Favorites

The Continental Op – The Complete Stories – Hammett began writing the Continental Op stories in 1923 and continued writing them until 1930. He wrote thirty-six Continental Op stories in all.

The Continental Op – The Novels – The Big Knockover, Red Harvest and The Dain Curse.

The Demolished Man – How would a hugely wealthy man commit murder when the police are all telepaths?

The Maltese Falcon – Treachery, deceit and one murder after another dogs private detective Sam Spade on the trail of a jewel encrusted golden statuette.

The Fabulous Clipjoint is a coming-of-age story that begins when Ed’s father is murdered in a back alley in Chicago. Ed and his Uncle Ambrose investigate and Ed learns a great deal about life and death.

No Good From a Corpse – Laurel Dane was no angel. She’d changed men as often as she’d changed her hair color, and there was plenty in her past she’d like to forget. But no one deserved to be beaten to death.

Red Harvest – The Original Poisonville Stories – Poisonville is the original set of four novelettes from 1927 and 1928 that were edited together to become the novel Red Harvest. The Continental Op is sent on assignment to a mining town in Montana to do “some business.” The man he was supposed to meet was murdered before he got to meet him.

The Continental Op-1927 – From ‘The Big Knockover’ to the beginnings of the Poisonville stories, 1927 was a very important year for Dashiell Hammett.

The Time Stream – Can disaster to an entire civilization be averted if diligent researchers roam the time stream looking for it? What if that disaster can only be prevented by denying a couple the right to marry? What if their love is the catalyst for the destruction of the world? How can free will be balanced against world destruction?

The Bounty Hunters – Charley Cogin had plans for the murderer of his sister—plans which included an ant hill, a burning sun, and the privilege of watching an enemy die inch by inch! The rest just think there’s a bounty on Wallace’s head and their greed blinds them to the Mexican bandits and the Apaches they are sure to face.

My Flesh is Sweet – On the run in Mexico from the accidental killing of a drunken Mexican general, Ad Conners and Eleana Hayes must somehow make it back across the border to confront a decades-old secret that could destroy them both.

The Petals of Lao-Tze – The eighth “petal”, is the final piece needed to recreate the complete golden talisman that is said to have given Lao-Tze long life, perhaps even immortality. Retrieving it from a dead man deep in the Himalayas is the easy part. Bringing it back to a wealthy benefactor is another story.