The Girl with the Silver Eyes: A Tale of the Continental Op - a Continental Op Short Story

The Continental Op

by Dashiell Hammett

A San Francisco un detective viene incaricato di rintracciare un uomo scomparso dopo una lite. Nelle sue ricerche si trova nella casa di una strana coppia di vecchi che lo trattengono per il the. Improvvisamente viene aggredito, legato e imbavagliato e rimane cosi coinvolto, con l'imbarazzante presenza di una ragazza, in un misterioso caso di furto e omicidio.

Genres: Mystery, Noir, Novella, Short Stories

58 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 1924

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 5 out of 5]

5 Stars. A short story which suddenly becomes much more than it started out to be. Those of us who are avid readers of Dashiell Hammett will catch the exact moment instantly. It's a novella which first appeared in Black Mask in 1924. Hammett adds a letter to the editor explaining his character types, as well as thanking him for the cheque! Don't forget Hammett had been a private detective with Pinkertons for three years. I caught it in the 2017 collection The Big Book of the Continental Op. Every short story and novel about our unnamed detective. Really enjoyable. The Op gets yanked out of bed when "the Old Man," his manager, sends him to meet a potential client, the anxious Burke Pangburn. Burke's new girlfriend is missing. She appears to have left San Francisco for Baltimore urgently, and now his love letters are coming back, "Not known." As an aside, the address Jeanne Delano gave her lover is actually across the street from Hammett's home as a youngster! The Op consults Pangburn's uncle who turns out to be Roy Axford, the big mining entrepreneur. Rich. Does this sound familiar? It should. It's a good one. (De2020/Jun2026)

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK (Novella) 198 (of 250)
Hammett entered the publishing market with short works, like this novella.
HOOK - 2 stars: A phone rings, waking a Continental Detective agency rep. Burke Pangburn has asked that someone come see him at once, but gives no reason. Shortly, we learn his fiancee is missing. Standard, but a cliched morning wake-up call.
PACE - 3: Novella done right: this is not material for a full-length novel.
PLOT - 2: A beautiful woman uses her assets either with a group or alone to fleece her victims. She may also be smart, but we never know so I can't give this 3 stars. Hammett gives us a rather lazy plot.
CAST - 2: Oddly flat. The beauty, Jeanne Delano, was known as Elvira in her last heist and is being searched for all over California. She's involved in her next theft of a Burke Pangham (very nervous type, but falls for the wrong lady) which involves forged checks from Burke's wealthy relative, Roy Axford, who surprisingly seems not to care much about a $20,000 forged check from his account. Bodies pile up but there is little to no emotion from anyone. The Continental Ops stooges all over the place, including Porky, are the most interesting characters.
ATMOSPHERE - 3: Burke's residence seems to be "an auctioneer's establishment just before the sale-or maybe one of these alley tea rooms. Fat blue vases, crooked red vases, lanky yellow vases..." We travel to a roadhouse called the White Shack near Halfmoon Bay and that sounds on the romantic side but it's rather rundown. The photo of Jeanne is interesting: "It was one of these artistic photographs-a thing of shadows and hazy outlines-not much good for identification purposes." Nice period (1920s) atmosphere.
SUMMARY - 2.4. A rather lackluster Hammett within his "The Continental Op" series.

[paper0r0ss0 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alle origini dell'hard boiled, da dove prende il via l'evoluzione del genere giallo/poliziesco/noir moderno. I personaggi di Hammett cominciano ad abbandonare lo schematismo di un'epoca, per diventare veri attori che occupano la scena caratterizzando le loro azioni con pulsioni e ragionamenti "veri". I buoni e i cattivi continuano ad essere nettamente distinguibili, ma si ha come l'impressione che i casi della vita avrebbero potuto portare gli uni e gli altri ad invertire i propri ruoli. Un investigatore, io narrante, e' a caccia di una giovane, crudele e affascinante assassina, mosso da una sete di giustizia che non lo porta mai a giudicare moralisticamente la sua preda, quasi avvertisse la necessita' e la inevitabilita' dei comportamenti di quest'ultima.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh… a stroll through San Francisco during the twenties! Dashiell Hammett presents us with a Hardboiled detective novella that is full of hopelessness and desolation. Hammett understood that in order to comprehend crime detection you need to get dirty, it is the loneliest job after all and social corruption is the name of the game. Great plot, nice resolution.

[Juergen John Roscher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The continental Op detective encounters the lady who escaped him in 'The House in Turk Street." Will he catch her this time? Excellent hard core detective short story.

[Jim Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Continental Op story with a terrific femme fatale who tries to get under the skin of the "little fat detective" after most of the men involved in her scheme have ended up dead. Can she use her evil beauty and seductiveness to put him under her spell. I think you should read the story and find out!

[Anto_s1977 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un detective privato si aggira per un quartiere di San Francisco alla ricerca di un giovane, quando si imbatte in una coppia di teneri nonnini, che lo invitano ad entrare per gustare una tazza di tè. Il detective, stanco della sua ricerca porta a porta, accetta con entusiasmo, ma si ritrova sotto la minaccia delle armi: quello in realtà non è altro che il covo di una banda di ladri!
Tra i ladri spicca la figura di una giovane donna dagli occhi d'argento, che il detective classifica come la più pericolosa della banda per le sue doti di mentitrice ed ammaliatrice provetta.
Non è facile uscire vivi da quel covo, ma il detective, grazie alla sua prontezza, riesce a salvarsi la vita, sfuggendo ai proiettili che infuriano nella stanza. Ma quando la situazione diventa più calma si accorge che la donna è scomparsa.
Non passa molto tempo e i due si ritrovano faccia a faccia, entrambi con la pistola in mano....
So che Dashiell Hammett è considerato il maestro dell'hard-boiled, ma non posso dire di essere rimasta folgorata da questa storia! Per carità, si tratta di una storia godibile ambientata nei primi anni del Novecento, tra pistole fumanti e freddi ladri ed assassini, ma il detective mi è sembrato un po' troppo un supereroe! Probabilmente è solo un mio problema con il genere, sicuramente non particolarmente nelle mie corde, ma non riesco proprio ad attribuirgli un voto alto.

[Edoardo Nicoletti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard boiled al 100%. Opera giovanile di Hammett ne condensa tutte le caratteristiche a partire dalla "cinematicità" (in senso geometrico e cinematografico) della scrittura. A tratti si ha l'impressione di avere davanti lo storyboard di un film, tanto nette e al tempo stesso dinamiche sono le descrizioni di ambienti, personaggi ed eventi. Da non perdere.

[Бранко · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good writing and an interesting story that is, in some ways, continuation of “The House in Turk street”. Another thing. “Little fat detective whose name I don’t know” says girl with silver eyes. Indeed, in his stories Hammett never gives us the name of this Continental Detective Agency operative. An antihero, short, fat guy who makes mistakes, yet a herd boiled hero. Very enjoyable.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Continental Op is called out of bed one Sunday morning to visit a Burke Pangburn. He states, eventually, that his fiancee Jeanne Delano is missing. Of course the case is not as straightforward as it at first seems.
Another re-read of this enjoyable short mystery

[Rachel White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Oldie!!!!!

This was short but oh so good! I felt like I was watching a good ole Bogey movie. I love the mysteries of this time period. I highly recommend to all!

[Sky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great, short but interesting. Feel like one of those old classic detective movie

[John L · Rating 5 out of 5]

A whirlwind tale

You will be swept along on the trail of Evil with no spare moments for reflection. Don't miss this one.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new case and a curious girl.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story from "The Black Mask" in 1924. Not sure why this is published as a stand alone - it is part of 1974's "The Continental Op" collection. And other collections as well - like one of the LOA Hammett volumes, and a couple (supposedly) more complete collection of Op stories. A continuation of the short story, "The House in Turk Street" (sic).
A femme fatale and Halfmoon Bay and lots of murders turn up in this short story.
I had never realized that, unlike Hammett himself, the Continental Op is short and fat!

[Valerio Pastore · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'autore non perde tempo nel metterti subito dentro l'azione! Poche frottole e subito, in poche righe, i personaggi sono ben delineati nei loro ruoli e nel loro destino. Un racconto lungo semplice, ben dosato nei tempi, asciutto e coinvolgente! Ognuno fà la sua parte senza strafare e pure se il finale è scontato, ci si arriva senza noia alcuna!

[Otillaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gli inizi dell’hard boiled, sempre interessante.