Who Killed Bob Teal? - a Continental Op Short Story - #14

The Continental Op

by Dashiell Hammett

A classic mystery from Dashiell Hammett.

Black Mask mystery and detective crime magazine carried the story in November 1924. They introduced it this way: "Operative Teal went out to shadow a thief, who didn't even know he was suspected. Seven hours after Teal left his agency's office, he was found dead - shot to death. Whose hand cut him down?"

Amusingly, the magazine credited the author on the title page as, "Dashiell Hammett of the Continental Detective Agency," which of course is fictitious! Before becoming a writer, he did work for Pinkerton's.

Librarian's note #1: this entry is for the story, Arson Plus. 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: Mystery, Short Stories, Noir, Crime, Detective, Pulp, Fiction

10 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 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 4 out of 5]

4 Stars. Bob Teal was a minor character in at least two previous Continental Op short stories, Zigzags of Treachery, and Slippery Fingers. He was about 25, likeable, and relatively new on the job as a detective with Continental, but with plenty of potential. The Op had been mentoring him. Both the Op and "the old man," his manager, are determined to find the man who shot Teal. The 10-page story is from a 1924 Black Mask issue; I read it in The Big Book of the Continental Op which came out in 2017. The fact that the victim is a truly sympathetic character surprises me from our point of view a hundred years later. That's not a cozy mystery feature! Hammett alludes to aspects of the story being true; he states, "Those who remember this affair will know .. all names (were) different from the ones I have given them." Teal was assigned to follow Herbert Whitacre, a partner in a land development company. The other partner, Ogburn, had called in the detective agency when he discovered close to $250,000 missing. On the third day of tracking, Teal was shot at close range. It's one of Hammett's better known tales, and a good one. (Ja2021/Se2025)

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting setup, but the Continental Op pulls together a few too many thin strands to make this whodunit even remotely believable.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if this book is very short, Hammett is able to captivate the reader, as his usual style of writing.

This ebook is free available at http://www.manybooks.net/titles/hamme...

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even though I had read several of the stories before. They're very good mysteries, and Hammett's writing is in top form; his physical descriptions of characters are spot on and memorable, and his portrait of San Francisco in the 20's is also full of detail. The title story has a nice theme that was echoed in The Maltese Falcon.

Someone needs to do a real omnibus collection of Hammett's stories. There aren't any dates or sources associated with these, and they are presented out of order (the titular character dies in the first story, but appears in the last).

At $.099 for the Kindle edition of this book is a real bargain; highly recommended.

[Holger Haase · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently finished the last of the Dashiell Hammett novels. Not too difficult to do given that he only ever published a small handful. In actual fact it was probably a bit of a surprise that it took me so long. But then again I can't really say that I really "get" Hammett. He is mildly entertaining but hasn't aged as well as some of his Noir colleagues.

Who Killed Bob Teal? and Other Detective Stories by Dashiell Hammett… features a bunch of his short stories and is available for just $0.99 for the Kindle so a good enough reason to indulge my Noir journey a bit further.

Some of the stories are belonging to his Continental Op cycle. They're all OK but less noirish and more standard Whodunnit.

The stories, however, that had me far more engrossed were all non-Continental Ops e.g.:

NIGHTMARE TOWN - a stranger arrives in a town in the middle of nowhere and stirs up trouble amongst the less than respectable citizens. Total havoc ensues. Noir story with a quasi-Western feel.
RUFFIAN'S WIFE - an adoring wife gradually gets to learn more than she had ever wished about the true nature of her world travelling husband with a mercenary streak
SECOND STORY ANGEL - a pulp fiction writer saves a dubious damsel in distress and hopes to incorporate her character in a number of new stories. But there's a catch. This story is nearly post-modern with its self-reverential pseudo-autobiographical nudges.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this because Hammett was listed on GQ's "75 Books Every Man Should Read" list and the book, The Continental Op sounded interesting enough but I didn't realize that book was unavailable for the Kindle and the character, a nameless private eye referred to as the "continental op" due to the company he works for, appeared in numerous short stories and this was one of them. So, basically, it was an ebook short story. It wasn't bad or anything, and as an introduction to the character it mostly works, but its still just a short story so it gets the plot over and done with in a quick and satisfying whodunit and that's about it.

I'll see about getting to GQ's recommendation at some point in the future, though not every book they listed seemed to interest me, and their ranking system at times seemed like it was written by a juvenile frat boy (I immediately got the reference in their one sentence justification for The Grapes of Wrath but that didn't make it any less juvenile).

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of detective stories by Dashiell Hammett is a fun read: Set largely in San Francisco, each story quickly caught my interest, carried me along, and usually surprised me with its unexpected twist or outcome.

Several years ago I read The Maltese Falcon, so when looking for a book to escape with this summer, I returned to Dashiell Hammett and found Who Killed Bob Teal. I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology and will look for additional stories by Hammett.

[Kb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free short story I found on manybooks.net. Something to occupy me while waiting for my library system to recover from a cyberattack that renders Libby unusable for borrowing books.

I’ve read a few Continental Op stories before and they are usually worth reading, as this one is.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out good but the ending was flat

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to on Tony Walker’s new podcast, Classic Detective Stories. (Tony is the host of the Classic Ghost Stories podcast).
It’s about 50 minutes long, and ideal to listen to when out for a wet walk here in Piediluco, on the St Francis Way.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of a massive collection of mysteries, but in this case representing the selection of Hammett stories.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Continental Ops story about a young operative who, just two years into the game, gets killed. How? Why? It’s because you can’t trust your clients. That’s an important rule in the PI business.