The Man in the Shadows

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

The first appearance of Race Williams, the private investigator who arrived two years before Hammett's Op and set the template for every hardboiled hero after him. He tells his own story in blunt, unpolished street talk.

Carroll John Daly