Dead Yellow Women - a Continental Op Short Story - #19

The Continental Op

by Dashiell Hammett

Our operative with the Continental Detective Agency happens to be in the San Francisco branch one day when he gets called into the Old Man's office - his nickname for the office manager!

There he finds a young woman he's been reading about in the papers for days. She's Lillian Shan, the daughter of the late Shan Fang, a prosperous but controversial California businessman. Two of her Chinese servants have been murdered and two more are missing. The finger of the local police is pointing her way. Continental agrees to help her get to the bottom of the situation and the Old Man gives the assignment to the Op, "You handle it. Use what men you need." Get set for a tale full of thrills and twists and confusion. Plus a large dollop of difficult-to-stomach-today, racism - it's the 1920s.

It's from Black Mask in November 1925.

Librarian's note #1: this entry is for the story, Dead Yellow Women. Entries for collections of short stories and the other individual stories can be found elsewhere on Goodreads. There are a total of 28 short stories plus one incomplete; they can all be found by searching Goodreads for: a Continental Op Short Story.

Librarian's note #2: there are also two Continental Op novels, Red Harvest (also known as The Cleansing of Poisonville), and The Dain Curse.

Genres: Crime, Noir, Mystery

30 pages

First published November 1, 1925

About the author

Also wrote as Peter Collinson, Daghull Hammett, Samuel Dashiell, Mary Jane Hammett

Dashiell Hammett, an American, wrote highly acclaimed detective fiction, including The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1934).

Samuel Dashiell Hammett authored hardboiled novels and short stories. He created Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) among the enduring characters. In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in the New York Times, "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction."

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell...

Reviews

[Jack Heath · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars. Down from 4 because of racism. So difficult to take but it's one more dated piece reflecting attitudes of its time. I call it the Mockingbird question. How does society deal with giants in the field, in this case the author, in that case the literary masterpiece, when the story oozes racism? This surprised me. Reading the Op stories, there have been small outbreaks here and there. But none near this extent. Even the title deserves censure; the word "Yellow" refers to Chinese; now if it had been named "Dead Chinese Women," it would be just as striking. And accurate too, but without the undesirable addition. I wish the story wasn't so good. It leaves readers lurching from one confusing aspect to the next - all to be resolved by the Op at the end. Why are two women dead? They were the servants of Lillian Shan, Continental's new client. Two others are missing. Could she actually be the culprit but for what reason? It's our guy's job to get to the end of this 30-page labyrinth. It came out in Black Mask in 1925, and I caught it in The Big Book of the Continental Op from 2017. Should I suggest you read it? That's one of the dilemmas. (Mar2021/Jun2026)

[Andrew Boer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most hilarious Op story I have yet encountered. Yes, it is definitely a send up of the Fu Manchu stories and is replete with racist tropes about the Chinese—some of them are kind of inexplicable, like the one that Chinese gangsters always unload all of their bullets when they shoot at someone. But the best character is the Chinese mastermind who speaks with fawning hyperbole, which the Op apes. I won’t spoil it but I found it a lot of fun.
I think this story must be the inspiration for the set piece in the 1982 movie Hammett— with all the interior stairs and slides, a labyrinth inside of Chinatown.
The story also reminded me a bit of the best chapter of ASIOF where Dany goes into the House of the Undying.

[Cathy]

The racist title is a sign of the times it was written in.

[Kelly Roark · Rating 1 out of 5]

terrible

[Tojuan Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

apart from the racism, really fun