Fly Paper and Other Stories

Collected Case Files of the Continental Op: The Later Years, Volume 3

Whether chasing debutants or gunning down killers, the legendary Continental Op doesn’t miss a beat, in this collection of short stories from master of noir fiction Dashiell Hammett

From the day she was born, Sue Hambleton has wanted to tell her family to go to hell. Bred to be a debutante, Sue’s more at home in the back alleys of the Bowery than the ballrooms of Fifth Avenue. When she’s finally old enough, she bolts, shacking up with a series of machine-gun artists, killers, and thieves in a debauched spree that takes her across the country and out of her family’s shadow. But when she finally surfaces in San Francisco, she becomes the Continental Op’s problem—the deadliest problem he will ever have.

Years of working as a private investigator gave Dashiell Hammett unique insight into life at the edge of the underworld. In “Fly Paper,” “The Farewell Murder,” and “Death and Company,” this pioneer of the hardboiled is shown at his very best.