Complex sentence: The Continental Op (abbreviated from continental operative) is the name that people use to refer to a fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett: a private investigator employed as an operative of the Continental Detective Agency's San Francisco office.
Split into simpler sentences: The Continental Op (abbreviated from continental operative) is a fictional character created by Dashiell Hammett. He is a private investigator employed as an operative of the Continental Detective Agency's San Francisco office.