House on Turk Street and Last Murder my favorites. Love the San Fran noir and confused by the 1930's street slang.

Hammett truly is a craftsman at his trade.

At times darker than the usual detective noir of this era that I'm familiar with, this collection of short stories starring our unnamed and unfit capable detective hits all the notes that I expected and hoped for. There are dangerous villains, terrible dames, double crosses, caricatures, as well as my favourite bits: the unglamorous boring grunt work of sitting around and waiting.

Having only been acquainted with Hammett's polished novel length famous heroes, these rough-edged curt men somehow feel more appealing, like a revelation of the real everyday world of these detectives, rather than just being associated with their high profile, once-in-a-lifetime cases. Will be seeking out even more Hammetts now. ( )

I felt like doing a reread of some Hammett, and I found this PB and realized I haven't read much of the Continental Op stuff. There are, it turns out, 36 Continental Op stories. This is a nice core sample of 7 . The formula with the detective protagonist in the middle of a a group of foreign villians, thick headed thugs, and femme fatales, engaged in some collective adversarial villainy as in The Maltese Falcon, is something that appears with some frequency. Terse, evocative prose -fun engaging stories. I'll hunt down the rest when I get a chance. ( )

This book contains a number of short detective stories, all involving the Continental Op. (You never learn his real name.) The stories are fast reads, and they are all well-written. Each captivates your interest, often with interesting twists at the end. I highly recommend this book! ( )

Very good stories- tough guy model for the ones that follow. usually out on the flyover states tracking down some fraud cases- ala Yours truly, Johnny Dollar- but a little more depth. ( )