Knights of the Open Palm

Five early cases from the pulp magazine where hardboiled fiction was invented, narrated by the fat, nameless operative who never wastes a word on sentiment. Includes the first Continental Op story ever published.

Dashiell Hammett

Nine cases from 1924, opening with a novelette where the detective is handed nine useless clues and has to go find the tenth. Reprinted from the original magazine pages with the editors' introductions intact.

Dashiell Hammett

Cases from the two years when Hammett hit his stride, running the Op through blackmail, jewel theft and small town corruption. The voice that would produce Red Harvest is already fully formed here.

Dashiell Hammett

A body on the beach opens a case that drags Daly's investigator through blackmail and a killer nobody can put a face to. A full length novel from the writer who invented the hardboiled private eye voice.

Carroll John Daly