'Praise for the Continental Op “In the Op, Hammett revolutionized the traditional figure of the detective. . . . To read [the stories] in sequence is to witness how Hammett slowly transformed the formulaic ‘gals, guts, and guns’ action tales, the staple of pulp magazines like the Black Mask, into the stuff of literature.” —The Washington Post   “Reading a classic of noir fiction like Dashiell Hammett’s The Continental Op is a revelation.” —The Huffington Post  Praise for Dashiell Hammett “Hammett was spare, hard-boiled, but he did over and over what only the best writers can ever do. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.” —Raymond Chandler   “Dashiell Hammett gave us the first truly American detective story.” —Ellery Queen on Red Harvest   “An acknowledged literary landmark.” —The New York Times Book Review on Red Harvest   “Not just the first of the tough school of crime-writing but the best.” —The Times (London) on The Dain Curse  '