Most Popular Books by Dashiell Hammett

A young, frightened, foreign woman appears at the door of an isolated house. The man and woman inside take her in. Other strangers appear in pursuit of the girl. Menace is in the air. Originally published in 1933, Hammett''s Woman in the Dark shows the author at the peak of his narrative powers. With an introduction by Robert B. Parker, the author of the celebrated Spenser novels.

FEATURING THE CHARACTER THAT INSPIRED THE AMC SERIES MONSIEUR SPADE STARRING CLIVE OWEN ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE''S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME Detective Sam Spade is a private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. When his partner is killed during a stakeout, he is drawn into the hunt for a fantastic treasure with a dubious provenance—a golden bird encrusted with jewels. Also on the trail are a perfumed grifter named Joel Cairo, an oversized adventurer named Gutman, and Spade’s new client 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 generations of readers.

Miss Gabrielle Dain Leggett is young and wealthy, with a penchant for morphine and religious cults. She also has an unfortunate effect on the people around her. They die -- violently. Is she the victim of a family curse? The Continental Op, the best private detective around, has his doubts.

Unlike most of Hammett’s works, the protagonist of The Glass Key isn’t a private detective; Ned Beaumont is a gambler, and the friend of a criminal boss. The action starts when he discovers the body of a senator’s son, and his friend wants him to help cover it up as a means of gaining the senator’s favour. This draws Beaumont into a brewing gang war, and he has to solve the mystery if he wants to get out alive. It has been adapted for film twice. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.

Now for the first time ever in one volume, all twenty-eight stories and two serialized novels starring the Continental Op—one of the greatest characters in storied history of detective fiction. Dashiell Hammett is the father of modern hard-boiled detective stories. His legendary works have been lauded for almost one hundred years by fans, and his novel The Maltese Falcon was adapted into a classic film starring Humphrey Bogart. One of Dashiell Hammett''s most memorable characters, the Continental Op made his debut in Black Mask magazine on October 1, 1923, narrating the first of twenty-eight stories and two novels that would change forever the face of detective fiction. The Op is a tough, wry, unglamorous gumshoe who has inspired a following that is both global and enduring. He has been published in periodicals, paperback digests, and short story collections, but until now, he has never, in all his ninety-two years, had the whole of his exploits contained in one book. The book features all twenty-eight of the original standalone Continental Op stories, the original serialized versions of Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, and previously unpublished material. This anthology of Continental Op stories is the only complete, one-volume work of its kind.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Thin Man" by Dashiell Hammett. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Though he is celebrated for his fiction, Dashiell Hammett was also a nonfiction writer, and some of those writings are anthologized for the first time in this collection. All the pieces that ran in Hammett''s syndicated newspaper column "The Crime Wave" are included, along with additional essays on writing well, politics, good and bad mysteries, effective advertising, and the World War II Battle of the Aleutians. Dozens of illustrations, advertisements, and photographs that have never before appeared in book form are included, along with an introduction for each selection and notes that provide insights into Hammett''s craft, the evolution of detective fiction, and American popular culture of the time.

From one of the great pioneers of detective stories, a classic novel reissued with a new introduction by S.A. Cosby The steadfast and sturdy Continental Op has been summoned to the town of Personville—known as Poisonville—a dusty mining community splintered by competing factions of gangsters and petty criminals. The Op has been hired by Donald Willsson, publisher of the local newspaper, who gave little indication about the reason for the visit. No sooner does the Op arrive, than the body count begins to climb . . . starting with his client. With this last honest citizen of Poisonville murdered, the Op decides to stay on and force a reckoning—even if that means taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

A selection from the letters of Dashiell Hammett, the American writer of crime fiction. Here is Hammett the family man, distant but devoted; Hammett the student of politics, scanning the headlines from a Marxist perspective; and Hammett the lover of Lillian Hellman, delighting in her style, humour, accomplishments, but maintaining his independence. Celebrity, soldier, activist, survivor--these letters show how Hammett was each of these in turn, but was always, above all, a writer.

Twenty long-unavailable stories by Dashiell Hammett, the author of The Maltese Falcon and the incomparable master of detective fiction. In the title story, a man on a bender enters a small town and ends up unraveling the dark mystery at its heart. A woman confronts the brutal truth about her husband in the chilling story "Ruffian''s Wife." "His Brother''s Keeper" is a half-wit boxer''s eulogy to the brother who betrayed him. "The Second-Story Angel" recounts one of the most novel cons ever devised. In seven stories, the tough and taciturn Continental Op takes on a motley collection of the deceitful, the duped, and the dead, and once again shows his uncanny ability to get at the truth. In three stories, Sam Spade confronts the darkness in the human soul while rolling his own cigarettes. And the first study for The Thin Man sends John Guild on a murder investigation in which almost every witness may be lying. In Nightmare Town, Dashiell Hammett, America''s poet laureate of the dispossessed, shows us a world where people confront a multitude of evils. Whether they are trying to right wrongs or just trying to survive, all of them are rendered with Hammett''s signature gifts for sharp-edged characters and blunt dialogue. Hammett said that his ambition was to elevate mystery fiction to the level of art. This collection of masterful stories clearly illustrates Hammett''s success, and shows the remarkable range and variety of the fiction he produced.

This collection features two of Dashiell Hammett’s best-known short stories “The Big Knockover,” and “$106,000 Blood Money” together, as they were meant to be read. In these connected stories, the Continental Op faces down an unprecedented influx of criminals into his native San Francisco, as the horde plans to collect a big payday by robbing two banks simultaneously, and then must hunt down the mastermind responsible for this elaborate crime spree. “The Big Knockover” witnesses the return of Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled detective character known only as The Continental Op. One of the earliest characters in the world of detective fiction, The Op paved the way for similar private eyes like Hammett’s own Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. The Op, however, had a personality all his own—uncompassionate, gruff, and stocky—and was never the prototypical heroic protagonist. He was, however the perfect fit for the genre in the early days of the hardboiled detective genre. HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.

The three classic novels published here in one volume are rich with the crisp prose, subtle characters, and intricate plots that made Dashiell Hammett one of the most admired writers of the twentieth century. A one-time detective and a master of deft understatement, Hammett virtually invented the hard-boiled crime novel. In The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade, a private eye with his own solitary code of ethics, tangles with a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. The Thin Man introduces Hammett''s wittiest creations, Nick and Nora Charles, who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. And in Red Harvest, Hammett''s anonymous tough-guy detective, the Continental Op, takes on the entire town of Poisonville in a deadly war against corruption. "Dashiell Hammett is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer."—Boston Globe ”Hammett was spare, hard-boiled, but he did over and over what only the best writers can ever do. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.”—Raymond Chandler ”Hammett’s prose was clean and entirely unique. His characters were as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction.”—The New York Times ”As a novelist of realistic intrigue, Hammett was unsurpassed in his own or any time.”—Ross Macdonald ”Dashiell Hammett’s dialogues can be compared only with the best in Hemingway.”—André Gide ”Hammett is one of the best contemporary American writers.”—Gertrude Stein

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Adventures of Sam Spade and other stories" by Dashiell Hammett. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Short, thick-bodied, mulishly stubborn, and indifferent to physical pain, Dashiell Hammett''s Continental Op was the prototype for generations of tough-guy detectives. He is also the hero of most of the nine stories in this volume. The Op''s one enthusiasm is doing his job, and in The Big Knockover the jobs entail taking on a gang of modern-day freebooters, a vice-ridden hell''s acre in the Arizona desert, and the bank job to end all bank jobs, along with such assorted grifters as Babe McCloor, Bluepoint Vance, Alphabet Shorty McCoy, and the Dis-and-Dat Kid.

Presents five novels by Dashiell Hamilton, all published between 1929 and 1934.

When the Continental Op gets roused out of bed early on a Sunday morning, he isn’t too impressed. Especially when his contact on the missing person case is an excited and teary man overcome with worry. But all the same, the Op is on the case and begins looking into the mysterious circumstances under which the girl with the silver eyes seems to have disappeared. HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.

The American author Dashiell Hammett created the hard-boiled school of detective fiction, with the enduring characters of Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man) and the Continental Op. Now widely regarded as among the greatest mystery stories of world literature, his works went on to have a significant impact on the development of crime fiction and film-noir cinema. His 1930 novel ‘The Maltese Falcon’ is generally considered his finest work, introducing Sam Spade, the quintessential hard-boiled private detective, who battles the gangs of organised crime, while left cynical by the cycle of violence and corruption in the world around him. For the first time in publishing history, this eBook presents Hammett’s complete published works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts and informative introductions. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Hammett’s life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * All 6 novels, with individual contents tables * The rare unfinished novel ‘Tulip’, first time in digital print * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original books and serial publications * Excellent formatting of the texts * Rare short story collections available in no other collection * The complete published Continental Op stories * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the short stories * Easily locate the stories you want to read * Includes Hammett’s rare uncollected stories – available in no other collection * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and genres Please note: the unfinished Sam Spade story ‘A Knife will Cut for Anybody’ and several other minor tales were only recently published and so cannot appear in this collection, due to copyright restrictions. When new texts enter the public domain, they will be added to the eBook as a free update. CONTENTS: The Novels Red Harvest (1929) The Dain Curse (1930) The Maltese Falcon (1930) The Glass Key (1931) The Thin Man (1934) Tulip (1966) The Shorter Fiction The Continental Op Series The Adventures of Sam Spade The Thin Man Series Woman in the Dark (1933) Hammett Homicides (1946) Dead Yellow Women (1947) Nightmare Town (1948) The Creeping Siamese (1950) A Man Named Thin (1962) The Big Knockover (1966) Uncollected Stories The Short Stories List of Short Stories in Chronological Order List of Short Stories in Alphabetical Order Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks

Follow crime fiction’s toughest hero from San Francisco to the Mexican frontier in the third installment of the Collected Case Files of the Continental Op The Continental Op is short, fat, and aging—but don’t let his appearance deceive you. Handy with a gun, and always willing to take a roundhouse to the chin, the Op is the toughest sleuth San Francisco has ever seen. And when a rich Englishwoman hires him to find her estranged husband, the Op thinks he’s in for an easy job. But the husband is an addict last seen in Tijuana, and finding him will take the hardboiled detective past the border and into a hellhole called the Golden Horseshoe. Before Nick Charles or Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett made his mark with the adventures of the Continental Op, whose particular brand of justice defined the legendary Black Mask style. In “The Golden Horseshoe,” “The House in Turk Street,” and “The Girl with the Silver Eyes,” the Op follows his cases from civility to temptation and back again.

er editors. Also included are revealing essays & an early version of the novel The Thin Man.

Meet Sam Spade, the quintessential private eye known for his cold detachment, keen perception, and unending determination. This ultimate collection of Sam Spade stories includes The Maltese Falcon, in which Sam dodges bullets, searches for exotic items, and plays on both sides of the law when he is hired by an alluring woman to follow a man. This collection also includes the three Sam Spade short stories A Man Called Spade, Too Many Have Lived, and They Can Only Hang You Once. Dashiell Hammett is widely recognized as the founder of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. The Maltese Falcon has been adapted for radio, stage, and film, including the 1941 Academy Award-nominated movie starring Humphrey Bogart. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, a screenplay writer, and political activist. Among his enduring character creations are Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, the Continental Op, and P. I. Rush, introduced in this book, who is ugly, mean, focused, and "works for pa." Hammett is 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." Ths short novellette is a crime story with an intricate plot and characters, and a surprise twist at the end.

THE MALTESE FALCON BY DASHIELL HAMMETT by Dashiell Hammett is a quintessential detective novel featuring the cynical private investigator Sam Spade. A quest for a priceless statuette spirals into a maze of deceit, betrayal, and murder.

In a tip of the hat to Sherlock Holmes, the Continental Op finds nine seemingly innocuous and unconnected items left as clues in a murder case. But this is San Francisco, not London, and the Op knows that the only thing he needs to crack a case is his own gut. HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.

The last of Hammett''s three short stories featuring private detective Sam Spade

Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles, The Continental Op. In his novels and stories, Dashiell Hammett created some of the most memorable characters--detectives, dames, and assorted miscreants--in twentieth-century fiction. It is nearly impossible to imagine modern American literature without Hammett. Vintage Hammett features episodes from Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The Dain Curse, and The Thin Man; and stories featuring the Continental Op, including “The House in Turk Street,” “The Girl with the Silver Eyes," and "Flypaper.” It also includes the story "Nightshade" which has not been available in over fifty years. Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers, presented in attractive, affordable paperback editions.

The stunning prequel to Dashiell Hammett''s crime classic THE MALTESE FALCON.

"Arson Plus" is the story that introduced the world to the Continental Op, the nameless detective whom Dashiell Hammett described as "a little man going forward day after day through mud and blood and death and deceit-as callous and brutal and cynical as necessary" (William F. Nolan, Dashiell Hammett: A Casebook). Born in the pages of Black Mask in 1923, the Continental Op is ageless, a hardworking hero as much for our time as he is for his own. Rediscover the early stories of the original hardboiled detective in the first volume of the Collected Case Files of the Continental Op, featuring "Arson Plus," "Slippery Fingers," and "Crooked Souls."