Before Sam Spade chased the black bird in The Maltese Falcon and Nick and Nora Charles stirred their first martinis in The Thin Man, the Continental Op walked early twentieth century San Francisco’s mean streets for the Continental Detective Agency. Dashiell Hammett used his own experiences as a Pinkerton operative to lend realistic detail to this creation. These first five stories were published in Black Mask magazine in 1923. - Summary by Winston Tharp

Dashiell Hammett’s hardboiled detective is assigned by his agency to guard a stash of wedding presents on an exclusive Bay Area island. Just as he settles in for what he thinks will be a boring break from the pursuit of bad guys, the lights go out and the sounds of gunfire and explosions shatter the quiet of the night. A military style assault on the island ‘s rich residents is underway, and only the Continental Op can stop it! - Summary by Winston Tharp

Biographer Nathan Ward has called “The Tenth Clew” Dashiell Hammett’s “first real jewel of a story.” In it, Hammett’s nameless Continental Detective Agency operative survives being knocked unconscious and dumped in San Francisco Bay. This kind of action was what his Black Mask magazine editors and readers were asking for, and Hammett somewhat grudgingly obliged them with continuing stories of the Continental Op.

The death of a well known San Francisco doctor brings a charge of murder for his wife, but is it murder or suicide, and is she really his wife? The Continental Op is on the case in Dashiell Hammett’s “Zigzags of Treachery,” featured here along with two more novellas from the pages of Black Mask magazine, "The Girl with Silver Eyes" and “The Golden Horseshoe.” - Summary by Winston Tharp