num_pages: 255
description: Hammett is justifiably lauded as a great original, the creator of a new genre, the hard-boiled American detective story, whose influence on succeeding generations of crime writers has been profound.There are no superfluous words in his short sentences... There are no frills, no explanations or elaborations. His terrain is the city street and his people are the inhabitants of the shabby half-world of ambition, corruption, crime and disillusion.Hammett should be regarded among the great American writers - The TimesHammett was the first American writer to use the detective story for the purposes of a major novelist, to present a vision, blazing, if disenchanted of our lives... a new kind of detective hero, the classless, relentless man of American democracy, who spoke the language of the street - Ross MacDonaldHammett's style was, almost from the beginning, original: bonedry, drained of colour, lacking delicacy but full of power, a pefect style for describing violent action without moral comment - Julian Symons, Time Literary SupplementCover illustration by Nancy Slomins
language: English
title: The Continental Op
titlecomplete: The Continental Op
characters: The Continental Op
genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Mystery, Thriller, Noir, Detective, Mystery Thriller, Classics, Hard Boiled, Crime
ratings_count: 6524
series: The Continental Op
publisher: Picador