Three Dimes - a Continental Op Short Story

The Continental Op

by Dashiell Hammett

The Goodreads introduction to "Death and Company" noted that the story was the last complete Continental Op short story. There is one more. But "Three Dimes" is incomplete, only a fragment is extant. It appears that Hammett abandoned it after about 1350 words, never to return. He left a few interesting notes as to how the story might progress but nothing on its conclusion.

It was first published in 2017 in "The Big Book of the Continental Op." About 90 years after experts believe it was written. The publishers even include the tantalizing notes.

In the story, Continental has been retained by McKay and MacLean, a stationery store on Market Street, to check on staff to see whether any were dipping into the till. The Op calls it a "Dinky little job." They visit the store every six months. This time the Op nails one of the salespeople. He had pocketed a sale of $0.30. Three dimes.

Any thoughts on how it might end?

Librarian's note: this entry relates to the story, "Three Dimes." Collections of short stories, and each of the other individual stories by the author, can be found elsewhere on Goodreads. There are a total of 28 short stories plus one incomplete; they can be found by searching Goodreads for: "a Continental Op Short Story."

4 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

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. Exciting. A new Continental Op short story - #29. Unfortunately not finished. Only 1367 words of a draft are available. Just the background, the initial action, and the start of complications which always spring to the foreground quickly in an Op story. I congratulate the editors of The Big Book of the Continental Op for discovering this fragment and bringing it to the public in 2017. I wonder if they have considered retaining a current day author of repute to complete it? In 1989 Robert B. Parker, he of Spenser fame, completed Raymond Chandler's unfinished Poodle Springs in which Philip Marlowe is the lead. In our story, the Op is working undercover at a stationery store, one of Continental's regular clients. He catches 16-year-old Richard Allan, a store sales person, pocketing 30 cents which should have gone in the cash register. You'll have to read the sting technique twice to catch it. The editors attached four notes Hammett made. One of them is tantalizing as to what you and I are missing: the "Boy becomes panic stricken .. goes in hiding, (and) is helped and used by (a) gang of crooks who are staging a big crime." Will we ever know what happens? (Jun2021/Jun2026)