The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels

The Continental Op

by Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman (Editor), Jeff Stone (Editor)

Hammett's continental op - tough, tired, intelligent, a snap-brimmed Sir Galahad with a Browning - was the prototype for a whole new tradition of private eye thrillers.
Here are ten of his classic suspense stories from the twenties and thirties - selected and introduced by Lillian Hellman.

The Gutting of Couffignal (35p)
Fly Paper (36p)
The Scorched Face (41p)
This King Business (56p)
The Gatewood Caper (18p)
Dead Yellow Women (58p)
Corkscrew (54p)
Tulip (48p)
The Big Knockover (57p)
$106,000 Blood Money (?)

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Crime, Noir, Detective, Anthologies

480 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1927

About the author

Also wrote as Peter Collinson, Daghull Hammett, Samuel Dashiell, Mary Jane Hammett

Dashiell Hammett, an American, wrote highly acclaimed detective fiction, including The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1934).

Samuel Dashiell Hammett authored hardboiled novels and short stories. He created Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) among the enduring characters. In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in the New York Times, "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction."

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell...

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my fill-in book, read in 1/4 or 1/2 hours slots in the car, which is why it took so long for me to get through.
The stories were selected, and an introduction written by Lillian Hellman, a close friend of Hammett's. They are 10 short stories, mostly featuring his unnamed detective from the Continental Detective Agency. These were consistently pretty good, and I have provided only a short description of each, along with a rating.

The Gutting of Couffignal Hired to guard presents at a wedding on a wealth private island, a robbery takes place and the Op is left to sort out who the guilty party is. 4/5

Fly Paper The missing daughter of a wealthy man, extortion, double crossing, but with all those likely candidates who murdered the girl? 4/5

The Scorched Face Hunting two missing daughters, the Op uncovers a rash of debutante suicides and disappearances. 4/5

This King Business Set in an imaginary Balkans country, the Op is sent to discover what a wealthy boy has used his millions for - and it turns out his to be King of this country. The Op needs to extract him from the mess he is wrapped up in. 2/5 This one was less detective and more spy, and was an odd man out in this book (but not the only one!)

The Gatewood Caper The daughter of a wealthy businessman is abducted, but it doesn't all add up to the Continental Op, who has to sort it all out. 4/5

Dead Yellow Women The Continental Op is tasked with finding out why a seaside mansion was broken into by Chinese men, and his seeking finds him spending more time in Chinatown than he is comfortable with, but how does he sort out friends from enemies? 4/5

Corkscrew A Western setting for this story, in which the Continental Op plays deputy sheriff in a 2 horse town in Arizona. Working for a land development country to figure out why so many cowboys die in this town, which is preventing them to successfully selling farmland. Strangely out of place here, but a good cowboy story! 3.5/5

Tulip This is Hammett's unfinished novel, and doesn't even appear to be a Continental Op story, so it is a mystery why it is included here. Despite having an ended cobbled together by Lillian Hellman, was an awful example of writing, and in my view would have been better left out. 1/5

The Big Knockoff Criminals from all over the country appear in the city, and then two banks are robbed in an audacious scheme. Soon after, the crims start getting bumped off. The Continental Op is tangled up in the thick of it. 4.5/5

$106,000 Blood Money This one follows on from The Big Knockoff, in that there is a reward out for the ringleader of the robbery. There is, of course, a twist at the end! 4.5/5

A couple of duds in there, but consistent 4s otherwise, so 4 Stars.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Big Knockover" by Dashiell Hammet is a compound of short crime stories..
I found all the stories very much readable and did enjoy them all..
Although I must confess that this is my introduction to Hammets work..

If you love hard boiled crime fiction, then go for it!!!
I could tell you a lot about the stories and also Hammett, but the best thing for me to do will be to say only one thing:
They are really good!!!
And that's what matters!!!

Happy reading and stay all of you healthy..

Dean;)

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a group of short stories, the first three connected to each other and longer stories, mostly starring our un-named Continental Operative. Those are my favorite. They have all the ingredients of a great story and I enjoy following the short, heavy-set detective around as he gathers up clues, makes discoveries and finally at the very end, gets the bad guys, although he is also adebt at letting the bad guys get each other. Saves on court costs and taxes.

Some of the stories take place in San Francisco, where the Op is stationed. Some specifically in China Town, one in an island of the coast of San Francisco and a couple away from 'Frisco on a ranch and lawless cowboy town.

If you like mysteries and hard boiled detectives, Hammett is the master and you'll enjoy these stories. The table of contents are:

The Gutting of Couffignal
Fly Paper
The Scorched Face
This King Business
The Gatewood Caper
Dead Yellow Women
Corkscrew
Tulip (an unfinished manuscript and rougher in development)
The Big Knockover
$106,000 Blood Money

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I read "Red Harvest," I have been a major fan of both Dashiell Hammett and his gumshoe the Continental Op. I love the Op's confidence and sense of sarcasm; the way he gives people the kind of attitude they want while steering them in the direction that he needs them to go in; his straightforward approach to a fistfight or a shoot-out. It is hilarious how much he stresses his age (over forty), his size (short and overweight) and his looks (scarred and none-too-attractive)--and yet women still want him, while most men don't know how to handle him in conversation or in conflict. He gets the job done better than anyone else, and he does so because he wants to get the job done right. He is an elusive kind of hero, never named and only rarely subject to introspection that touches upon his past; and yet he is a very real kind of hero, driven by a personal ethos that separates him from the drama and squabble of urban life and crime.

As Hammett's long-time companion Lillian Hellman writes, some of the stories in this collection are great, some not as much. The former really stand out, especially ones like the title story, "The Big Knockover," and the one that precedes it in the collection, "Corkscrew." In these, Hammett throws the Op into convoluted situations that boil over with the passions and desires of crooks and citizens, leaving the Op to sort through it all with his aikido-like manipulations and his ability to put up with the abuse that comes with the job.

As for the less successful stories, they are still worth reading for Hammett's terse prose and exciting plots. I was sad to finish this volume and put it on the shelf. Fortunately, I recently found a used copy of "Nightmare Town," which contains yet more stories featuring the Op.

[Still · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished every short story by Dashiell Hammett contained in this collection as well as Nightmare Town back in October 2014.

I loved all of 'em. I read everything that featured my favorite Hammett character the Continental Op and a couple of other non-Ops tales.

If you're up for reading a bit of Hammett you might want to start with these collections.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

COUNTDOWN: - Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK/Novella 165 (of 250)
HOOK = 3 stars: "Wedge-shaped Couffignal is not a large island, and not far from the mainland, to which it is linked by a wooden bridge. Its western shore is a high, straight cliff that jumps abruptly up out of the San Pablo Bay. From the top of this cliff the island slopes eastward...the intersecting streets become winding hedged rows...The higher these roads get, the farther apart and larger are the houses they led to. The occupants of these higher houses are the owners and rulers of the island. That is Couffignal, " Hammett declares on page 1. The narrator protects "wedding presents whose value would add up to something between fifty and a hundred thousand dollars." Thus, we readers know there is to be robbery, a standard crime for the genre.
PACE=3: As solid as the rock upon which the island stands against the storms of the ocean.
PLOT=3: Early on, Hammett telegraphs clearly to readers there is to be a robbery by gunshots and explosions in the downtown portion of the island. But are the thieves after the contents of a bank vault, the wedding gifts, the bride and her wedding escorts or perhaps all of the above? And when the connecting bridge is blown to bits, the plot thickens. Is the thief (thieves?) after more than just money or the bride? Couffignal may be loaded with secrets...well, just a tad too many as this is almost novel material
ChARACTERS=4:This is a plot-driven story: you'll remember nary a single name once you've turned the final page. However, the narrator, a member of Hammett's Continental Detective Agency solves the mystery with a sensational bit of detective work: the culprit(s) reveal is quite astounding given that it's based on just a few easy-to-miss clues.
ATMOSPHERE= 2: A late afternoon storm brings the wedding festivities (more descriptions of the landscape/house/party would have been nice) to a halt but doesn't stop the thieves from proceeding with their plans. Given that the story involves a number of Russian citizens, one can't help but flash to a major USA political figure who'll leave his lovely wife in the pouring rain, claiming an umbrella for himself. Oh, but I digress...
SUMMARY: This is the 2nd time I've read this story and, all-in-all, I just can't get the pieces to fall together. If you're read Hammett, you know his plots can be convoluted. But it's Hammett. It's good. My rating is 3.0. And I think I'll read it again to grasp the finer points.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hammett is undeniably one of the most incredible mystery writers ever, and this book affirms it. The first few stories in this collection were very pulp-1920s mystery, featuring (among other things) a sex cult and an eastern European coup. They were fun, but they lacked something of the thoughtfulness of Chandler's work and felt shallow- lots of exciting fight scenes, no substance. Then, the story "Tulip," an unfinished work, really changed my mind about these stories. I really saw Hammett in the narrator, and loved the insight that give me to the rest of his work. The story also wasn't a mystery- yet Hammett only finished the first chapter and last sentence, so you are left wondering what it was going to be about. The title story was, of course, a very very good mystery but it was that story's sequel (Blood Money) that really pulled the whole collection together for me.Very very dark and moody, more so than his "Continental Ops" detective usually gets. In the end, I just wanted more.

[Gabriel Congdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hammett is the shit.

What I think is an interesting positionjuxting is that Hammett is always telling a wild and dangerous story. Each time you start a new paragraph a machine gun fight might break out. There’s such chaos around every corner. And yet, his prose is so clean, it’s economical, it’s clinical. The contrasts practically battle themselves and the result is a wild romp.
It’s not just more Nightmaretown stuff either, well it is, but there’s a greater amount of versatility as well. It’s more eclectic. Plus theirs a novel fragment that’s defiantly not detective stuff. I waited until the last story to read the into by Lillian Hellman. It made a man of this author I’d been idolizing. It wall rather moving.

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a collection of his best The Contintenal OP stories but they still range from very good to great stories in this collection.
The Gutting of Couffignal,The Big Knockover,CorkscrewThe Yellow Dead Women was the best stories in the collection.

The OP style,lines,his cold-blooded professionalism, drive is a blessing,a save from romantic PI heroes that think they are good guys in a play. The OP will let criminals die if it takes to do the job. He is so refreshingly ruthless,real.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not your usual collection of short stories. (Ok, in a the modern era where everyone seems to have posthumously published works, maybe it's not so unusual.) In the covers of this book we have:

a) Lillian Helman's words about the man,
b) Several gritty, pulp-style dark slices of life with our friend The Continental Op, and
c) Snatches of incomplete tales, including the unfinished novel, "Tulip".

Need I say any more?

Even if you only care for the classic "film noir", bleak American style of hard-boiled detection the Op's appearances in this book will keep you satisfied. But, if you delve into the introduction and the other works, you'll reap an unexpected bonus that I found well worth the price of the book. I hope you do, too.

(Another book read ages ago and probably deserving of a re-read.)

[Bobbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I read one story at a time in between many, many other books over several months, so it's hard to write a solid, accurate review. Looking over the table of contents, I don't remember having a negative reaction to any of the stories except for Tulip, which was a hard one to figure. It seems out of place in this collection. Since it's so long, I'm removing one star for it. I remember enjoying all the others, and it's fun that the Continental Op goes to so many different places and takes care of so many different problems. Any way, good stuff, and I'm glad Red Harvest introduced us, or I might have written Hammett off.

[Alex Braun · Rating 4 out of 5]

really fun and crazy, writing is rhythmic and off-kilter and the stories are bonkers, 3 truly preposterous stories in the middle though

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The situation with this collection appears to be that this was a kind of odds-and-ends group of short fiction that was knocking around in Hammett's possession at the time of his death. Mrs Hammet, Lillian Hellman, collected and wrote an introduction for this compilation, in 1962. Some were published in the likes of 'Ellery Queen', and some were never before seen, basically novellas looking for a revision and an expansion to become novels.

And an odd group it is. You can't really miss finding something here that is worthwhile on some level-- but, there are some really strange and pulpy moments. We find Hammett trying his general formula in all shadings of story, location, and genre here. Every story a Hopper painting, with that unspoken dread invariably repaid in full.

There is a classic San Franscisco Chinatown piece, called, with all blatant pulp-orientalism intact, "Dead Yellow Women". Noirish inscrutability, exotic and intricate locations, all the usual suspects-- gunmen, weasels, bookies, rats, mandarins and a dragon lady. What more could anyone ask.

A good society scandal story, with cult murder and runaway heiresses, is called 'The Scorched Face' :

...A night wind from the Pacific was creaking a grocer's sign down below, swaying the arc-light above. The wind caught the woman as she passed out of our building's sheltered area. Coat and skirts tangled. She put her back to the wind, a hand to her hat. Her veil whipped out straight from her face.
Her face was a face from a photograph ...

Which goes Noir Baroque when we get to the cult house and ring the bell :

...A big black man in a red fez, red silk jacket over red-striped silk shirt, red zouave pants and red slippers opened the door.

Is there really anyone who can stop turning the pages at that point ? I think not.

Another bright moment is called "This King Business" which goes really far afield, to Eastern Europe, in fact, for a hard-bitten brush with the espionage / suspense genre. Far from homebase, we find just what we need-- untrustworthy operatives, secret societies, and that classic of twenties fiction, the charmingly innocent Heir-To-A-Fortune-- running dangerously amok in strange, unorthodox circumstances. And, of course, a femme fatale or two, as is contractual in these situations. (Erskine Childers and John Buchan certainly beat Hammett to the origins of the spy tale, but this holds its own pretty well with any early example of the genre. Just kind of wacky to have the snappy-comebacks Noir tough-guy hero, involved where normally you'd have a suave-but-deadly type...) Good fun, and a reminder that even good writers have to stretch sometimes in an effort to reinvent things that have become a little too codified.

Those are three good ones; there are less-good ones. (A kind of Detective / Wild-West misfire, complete with horses, sixguns and banditos... to be avoided.) For any Hammett fan or completist, though, it's very interesting to see the kind of Alternate Takes the noir master was playing around with, and-- hard to fault him for the misfires, given that he wasn't around to do the deciding on what went into this collection.

[Noah Goats · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of crime stories. Hammett was an original, a really good writer who took detective stories from upper and middle class drawing rooms and brought them into the mean streets. If you like your mysteries to be intricate puzzles where the last piece falls into place on the last page, then Hammett may not be for you. If you like action, writing that is lean and mean, and great characters who are drawn in a few vivid strokes, then Hammett is your man.

I'd read some of Hammett's novels before, but this is the first time I have ever read any of his famous Continental Op stories. The Continental Op is a great character. Hammett doesn't waste a lot of time giving him a long back story (or even a name), I have no idea if his parents loved him or not, or whether he was bullied as a child, or if he likes to read Proust (although, I suspect no on these last two). What Hammett does is show him at work, and the Continental Op seems to live and breathe his job.

Hammett was, famously, a detective with the Pinkertons and this gives his stories nice touches of authenticity. Unlike most private investigators The Continental Op isn't a lone wolf (or a nearly lone wolf with one partner), he is an agency man who answers to The Old Man and works with a large number of other agents who help him run down leads.

His stories, on the other hand, are outrageous and unlike anything that came before. The title story in this collection is a roller coaster of action and violence with a body count that runs into the dozens. This collection also contains a story where the Continental Op helps stage a coup in a Eastern European country and another where he becomes something akin to a sheriff in a western (albeit one who can't ride a horse very well).

In short, these groundbreaking stories sparked the hard boiled crime genre and have become classics. They are also very entertaining.

[Guillermo Galvan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is different from the stories in Nightmare Town. Right off you can feel this book is more plot driven than character driven. This was a bad move. The whole reason you care about the great revelation at the end is because of the people involved, not how many plot twists. It really made me wish his characters were developed as well as they were described. Luckily, there are enough all-around stories to make this a decent book.

All the elements that make Hammett a master of the hardboiled detective school are present: gangsters, girls, guns, and tons of cigarette smoke. Which makes me wonder why the hell they decided to include Tulip, a watered down Steinbeck themed chapter from an unfinished novel.

Corkscrew is the odd ball of the collection. Hammett puts our favorite detective in Hick-ville, Arizona to deal out justice. It makes me wish Hammett would have tried his hand at a western novel.

Read Nightmare Town first, which is much better collection. Then pick this one up when you're ready for a second helping.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is sort of a grab bag of mostly misses from the usually stellar hammett. the continental op takes on all sorts of new and unlikely foes, including fallen russian nobles, a balkan revolution, chinese smugglers portrayed in an unfortunately racist light, and a herd of villains with goofy names like the dis-and-dat kid. the latter is actually an ok story close enough to the sweet spot of hammet's talent, and in fact the closing story (its sequel) is the best of the collection and quite enjoyable.

there's also a long and incomplete story that's probably a little autobiographical and certainly isn't about the continental op, though it's maybe about why the op and not normal life. even though it's normal life so kind of meta.

[Yani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall this is a great collection of short stories starring the unnamed Continental Op from some of Hammett's previous books.

However, Lillian Hellman, his longtime partner and holder of the copyright on his work after his death, chose to include the beginning of a completely different novel he started working on, but never completed.

This needed to either have been at the very front of the book or the very back of the book so that it could have been skipped over or otherwise ignored, as it was nothing like his really excellent detective fiction, and incredibly dull. Also, it felt very much like a first draft.

Otherwise, it's a damn good book, especially the titular Big Knockover story and the one that follows it $106,000 Blood Money.

[G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me longer to read than it took Hammett to write, I'm pretty sure. Hey, I've had a lot going on. Besides: I was savoring each story. This is a nice (second) collection of Hammett's short fiction featuring his nameless protagonist, The Continental Op, a hardboiled operative from the Continental Detective Agency, who I picture being played by a Spencer Tracy or a Joel McCrea, if we lived in that alternate universe. There's some political incorrectness hiding in these pages, but you need to forgive because that's how we were back then. There's also a novella where Hammett tries for a Hemingway-esque feel. It's not too successful but still of interest. It's also unfinished. Go ahead and read it for a nice visit to a time before you walked the Earth.

[Andre' Delbos · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an inexperienced reader of detective fiction, I found these stories of the Hammett's unnamed investigator at the Continental Detective Agency, who solves cases and punishes criminals with both brain and braun, in and around Prohibition-era San Fransisco entirely thrilling.
Hammett's language is authentic and tough, yet has aged well and is still entirely readable.
Included here also is an unpublished short novel (Tulip) which demonstrates Hammett's skill creating sympathetic yet mysterious characters and offers, what appears to be a brief scholarly treatise on the Rosicrucians.

[Maryanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is terrific, concise and descriptive with various twists and turns. The plots of the various stories were overshadowed by the imaginative writing style. Many stories involve the nameless continental op detective that takes a punch and throws a punch in his relentless pursuit of criminals. In the introduction by Lillian Hellman, she writes about insights and details of Dashiell Hammett's life, as interesting as his characters.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great vivid storytelling. Good challenge for the brain to be able to follow all the twists and turns.

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It turns out that the ultimate heist... is stealing the hearts of the people who will become the friends you made along the way... and no detective agency can ever change that

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dashiell Hammett had a remarkably brief “productive period” in which he wrote and published original fiction, but he was quite prolific during that time, so it takes a while to work through his oeuvre. Every time I think I’m finished, I seem to find another collection of short stories or novellas I haven’t read yet. I think this may be the last of those, but I won’t complain if another one crops up one of these days.

Most of the stories in this book are examples of his “Continental Op” stories, which fill another anthology as well, so this nameless character is probably his most thoroughly covered one, despite the far-greater recognition of Sam Spade or Nick Charles. The Op never starred in a major movie, and Hammett did his best to keep him faceless – the real stars of these stories are generally the hoodlums and deadbeats. Below, I’ll talk a bit about the individual stories and what I found interesting about them.

First, though, I want to cover the part of the book that doesn’t fall under that category: the Introduction and an odd fragment of much later writing that appears in the middle of the book. This collection was published by Lillian Hellman, who wrote the highly biographical introduction not too long after his death, while she was definitely still working through her feelings about their relationship. A lot of affection, fascination and admiration comes through in that intro, but there’s also frustration, bewilderment, and a degree of regret there as well. What she doesn’t write about is the Continental Op, or detective fiction generally. Instead, she tries to tell us about the side of “Dash” that never appears on the pages of the well-known stories, but is there in spades in “Tulip,” the previously-unpublished fragment. Indeed, the Intro foreshadows various parts of “Tulip” by showing the biographical details Hammett included. “Tulip” itself is ambiguous. It seems to be Hammett talking to himself about why he stopped writing, but being afraid to look too hard. He splits himself into two characters: Tulip and “Pop,” and has each of them tell the other to shut up every time they get close to figuring anything out. The weirdest part of the story is a two-page book review, presumably a real one Hammett wrote during his productive period, of a now-very-obscure book on Rosicrucianism by E.A. Waite, who created one of the best-known tarot decks. It feels like Hammett is trying to show off his erudition, and his knowledge of topics unrelated to crime and sleuthing, here, but he also has one of his characters laugh out loud at the pretension. For people interested in knowing about Hammett the man rather than Hammett the writer, both Hellman’s intro and this story are gold mines, but they won’t scratch the same itches that the Op stories do, and Dash himself might have preferred that they remain private and unpublished.

OK, on to the stories!

“The Gutting of Couffignal” is one of a few stories in this book in which an audaciously huge criminal operation is thwarted by the Op. In this instance, a small island of wealthy people is held under siege by a criminal gang during a rainstorm at night. It turns out (spoiler) that the recently-arrived Russian emigres are behind it, but this is not anti-immigrant propaganda – Hammett makes them his criminals because they are White Russians, fighting against the revolution and the Soviet Union.

“Fly Paper” is about a poisoning scheme, in which various crooks are double-crossing one another, and taking some rather dubious medical advice, which just goes to show that there was medical misinformation even before the Internet.

“The Scorched Face” is about an extortion scheme that leads to death and suicide for young socialites. It toys a bit with esoteric secret societies and upper-class degeneracy, but stays away from any specifics, and suggests that both are ultimately cynical weaknesses for ruthless men to exploit.

“This King Business” was for me the first really interesting story. It places the Continental Op in a fictitious Balkan country that is struggling to find its destiny after being created through the Treaty of Versailles. He is there to find a wayward American rich kid, but winds up in the middle of a revolution staged by the country’s elite for cynical purposes. It gives Hammett an opportunity to comment on world conditions, and on the rise of fascism, without being preachy.

“The Gatewood Caper” is about a kidnaping that goes badly. If you’re paying attention, you know right away that the supposed “victim” is somehow involved in bringing it about, but watching Hammett skewer the rich patriarch and figuring out the rest of what’s going on is the fun part.

“Dead Yellow Women” is a particularly involved Chinatown investigation that does have a number of Asian stereotypes, but one often gets the feeling that Hammett’s Asians are putting on a show for the round-eyed Op. Hammett again comments on world affairs by tying in the resistance to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, but doesn’t go so far as to bring in Chairman Mao.

“Corkscrew” is a Western that particularly fascinated me. In 1996, when I worked at a video store, there was a Bruce Willis movie, helmed by Walter Hill, called “Last Man Standing” that was a lot like “Corkscrew.” Ironically, this seems to have been unintentional. It was a remake of “A Fistful of Dollars” which was itself a remake of “Yojimbo” which was based on Akira Kurosawa reading a lot of Hammett and synthesizing it into Japanese history. By the time Hill got ahold of it, he had moved the plot back to Prohibition-Era America and Hammett’s name wasn’t even mentioned in the credits, but to all intents and purposes, Hill had re-created “Corkscrew," only without all of the clever complications and interesting characterizations. If Hill had gone back and read “Corkscrew,” maybe “Last Man Standing” wouldn’t have been a total bomb at the box office.

The last two stories, “The Big Knockover” and “$106,000 Blood Money” are actually one long novella, divided into two parts. In the first part, a truly huge heist is pulled off by a coalition of gangsters with names like “Alphabet Shorty McCoy,” “The Dis-And-Dat Kid,” and “Paddy the Mex.” They lock down a whole street in San Francisco’s financial district and loot a couple of banks before fighting it out with flat foots and disappear into the alleys, where bodies soon start turning up. It turns out that the master mind of the operation has decided not to split the take and is knocking off everyone involved in the knockover. The Op, with his usual good fortune, is able to trace the killings up the line and catch the birds at the top, only to find out they have out-thought him and made a getaway while using him to silence the last witnesses. Part two of the story brings the double-crosses inside the Continental Detective Agency and puts the Op in a situation of having to choose his loyalties. It feels a bit like Hammett had a great idea and ran with it, but never quite decided how it should end until pretty much everyone was dead.

[Jonathan Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of Continental Op takes that, with its introduction, also gives us an insight into the author’s life and complex character.

[EuroHackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is (for the most part) an amazing collection of short stories starring the nameless Continental Op, the OG hard-boiled detective. The titular story is twelve kinds of awesome, and definitely the best of the bunch. The sequel was bittersweet, and it made me understand why this collection ended with its blockbuster story rather than started with it.

The other stories are not quite as amazing at "The Big Knockover," but they are pretty damn good. (You can see my thoughts on yaoi on my full-page review.) The Op is smart and funny and very compelling to read about.

I enjoyed the other stories as well, with the exception of two - "The Gatewood Caper" was short and boring, especially compared to the other stories, and "Tulip," an unfinished manuscript that was not a Continental Op story, but rather some sort of self-insert existential angst nonsense. "Dead Yellow Women" contains a lot of cringey racism that was rampant at the time of its writing. I also skipped the circuitous introductory essay by Lillian Helman, hence knocking off a star.

All in all, though, a fun collection. I'm definitely going to read the Op's novel-length adventures.

[Pep Bonet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hammett is one of my favourite writers. I've always enjoyed his novels. The short stories in this book belong, except one, to the Continental Op series. They are early products, but they show the talent he had. Short stories are less complete than long ones. Like miniature books. The ones collected here are interesting stories, although, due to their length, don't have great developments, many turns in the story. The sleuth comes to a result more easily than in full books. But still, the atmosphere is there, the language is there, the general everything is there.
One story is totally different, though, to the point that I don't know why it was included. It's an unfinished last story, written much later than the rest and with no obvious relation with the rest. I must say that I never understood what was going on in it or where it was going to. Pity.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked 4 out of the 5 stories herein, therefore, 4 stars! I've always liked the Continental Op a lot, and the four tales of his in this book do not disappoint! I like that we don't get his name, nor his boss', the "Old Man", he isn't in the best shape, and he isn't afraid to shoot! Or steal a crutch! The title story was fun, with lots of old timey crook nicknames and double crosses! The story I didn't like, "Tulip", was not a Continental Op story, and honestly, I'm not sure what it really was. Sort of a meandering tale, and one I wasn't into. But the other 4 are good, and well worth reading!

[Ryan Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hammett is sort of my Raymond Chandler stand-in when I run out of Marlowe books kicking around the house and feel like reading a noire. He's perfect by no means; he's not as complex or witty or even as dark as Chandler but he gets the job done in a pinch.

"The Maltese Falcon" remains his magnum opus but this collection of short stories are (for the most part) quite good. I've come to grow very fond of his nameless detective (who I always imagine in my head as a Columbo type for some reason). The titular short story and its sequel are the two big moments of the collection. They're ridiculous, over-the-top, and full of cheesy pulp... And they're great!

[Kasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of some of the longest Continental Op. stories. I had forgotten how action-packed and pulpy they were. It can be a bit much at times, but I still really liked them. The concluding stories are connected and the two that kind of reach for more than just pulp.

That being said, This King Business is probably my favorite of the stories. It's more comedic and has way less shoot-out scenes (you could argue it doesn't even really have any), also I just have a weakness for "Ruritanian Romance" in any medium.

[Feliks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contains a selection of little-known but very impactful stories. This collection is a lot of fun to read. More evidence on hand that the entire action-thriller genre stems from Hammett and no one else. You can see all the elements of 'Die Hard' right here in the titular story. A determined gang completely invades a seaside resort town and Hammet's Op has to foil their nefarious scheme working secretly from the inside. Riveting and sensational! This is where it all leads back to!