The Continental Op is a short, squat, and utterly unsentimental tank of a private detective. Miss Gabrielle Dain Leggett is young, wealthy, and a devotee of morphine and religious cults. She has an unfortunate effect on the people around her: they have a habit of dying violently. Is Gabrielle the victim of a family curse? Or is the truth about her weirder and infinitely more dangerous? The Dain Curse The Dain Curse is one of the Continental Op's most bizarre cases, and a tautly crafted masterpiece of suspense. is one of the Continental Op's most bizarre cases, and a tautly crafted masterpiece of suspense.

Fiction/Crime/978-0-679-72260-1 THE GLa.s.s KEY.

Paul Madvig was a cheerfully corrupt ward-heeler who aspired to something better: the daughter of Senator Ralph Bancroft Henry, the heiress to a dynasty of political purebreds. Did he want her badly enough to commit murder? And if Madvig was innocent, which of his dozens of enemies was doing an awfully good job of framing him? Dashiell Hammett's tour de force of detective fiction combines an airtight plot, authentically venal characters, and writing of telegraphic crispness.

Fiction/Crime/978-0-679-72262-5 THE MALTESE FALCON.

A treasure worth killing for. Sam Spade, a slightly shopworn private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. A perfumed grafter named Joel Cairo, a fat man named Gutman, and Brigid O'Shaughnessy, a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. These are the ingredients of Dashiell Hammett's coolly glittering gem of detective fiction, a novel that has haunted three generations of readers.

Fiction/Crime/978-0-679-72264-9 NIGHTMARE TOWN.

Laconic coppers, lowlifes, and mysterious women double-and triple-cross their colleagues with practiced nonchalance. A man on a bender awakens in a small town with a dark mystery at its heart. A woman confronts a brutal truth about her husband. Here is cla.s.sic noir: hard-boiled descriptions to rival Hemingway, verbal exchanges punctuated with pistol shots and fisticuffs. Devilishly plotted, whip-smart, impa.s.sioned, Nightmare Town Nightmare Town is a treasury of tales from America's poet laureate of the dispossessed. is a treasury of tales from America's poet laureate of the dispossessed.

Fiction/Crime/978-0-375-70102-3 RED HARVEST.

When the last honest citizen of Poisonville was murdered, the Continental Op stayed on to punish the guilty-even if that meant taking on an entire town. Red Harvest Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a cla.s.sic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain. is more than a superb crime novel: it is a cla.s.sic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

Fiction/Crime/978-0-679-72261-8 THE THIN MAN.

Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett's most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners. is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.

Fiction/Crime/978-0-679-72263-2 WOMAN IN THE DARK.

On a dark night a young woman seeks refuge at an isolated house. She is hurt and frightened. The man and woman who live there take her in. But their decency is utterly unequipped to deal with the Woman in the Dark, or with the designs of the men who want her. First published in installments in Liberty Liberty magazine and now rediscovered after many years, magazine and now rediscovered after many years, Woman in the Dark Woman in the Dark shows Dashiell Hammett at the peak of his narrative powers. shows Dashiell Hammett at the peak of his narrative powers.

Fiction/Crime/978-0-679-72265-6

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The Big Knockover, 978-0-679-72259-5 The Continental OP, 978-0-679-72258-5