Death and Company - a Continental Op Short Story - #28

The Continental Op

by Dashiell Hammett

The Op is called into the Old Man's office one day to meet a new client. Martin Chappell looks worried and, it turns out, has reason to be. He has received a note that his wife has been kidnapped. "Put $5000 in $100 bills under the pile of bricks behind the bill board .. (or) you will get a letter tomorrow telling you where to find her corpse. We mean business." The note is signed Death & Co.

The Op draws the case. What can he make of it?

Here we have the last complete Continental Op short story. It appeared in Black Mask mystery magazine in late 1930.

Librarian's note #1: this entry is for the story, Death and Company. 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.

9 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

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 3 out of 5]

3 Stars. Not up to the level of Hammett's more recent offerings, but a stumper for a while! This was the last complete Op story published. My read was from the 2017 compilation, The Big Book of the Continental Op. We read a ransom note up-front and the Old Man, the Op's boss, and the Op himself agree that the only option is to pay the financial demand, although the Op adds, "These Death and Co. birds are pretty dumb in picking the spot for the pay-off." What else could one do? The client, Martin Chappell, doesn't want to bring in the police out of fear for his wife's safety, but fails to realize that Continental can't easily function without cooperating with SFPD. The drop occurs but his wife doesn't come home. That's when things get interesting. You need to read the rest yourself! The kidnapping theme is one Hammett has picked up before. Here it may be a reference to the real and sensational kidnapping of Marion Parker in Los Angeles two years earlier; the 12 year-old's body was found a few days later. Hammett also used a kidnapping in Crooked Souls. As a short read, Death and Company is worth it! (Jun2021/Jun2026)