'Not just the first of the tough school of crime-writing but the best' THE TIMES

'Not just the first of the tough school of crime-writing but the best' THE TIMES

Miss Gabriel Dain Leggett is young and wealthy, with a penchant for morphine and religious cults. She also has an unfortunate effect on the people around her. They die - violently.

Is she the victim of a family curse? The short, squat, utterly unsentimental Continental Op, the best private detective around, has his doubts and finds himself confronting something infinitely more dangerous.

This is the Continental Op's most bizarre case and a tautly crafted masterpiece of suspense.

"He is master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer" - BOSTON GLOBE

"His name remains one of the most important and recognisable in the crime fiction genre. Hammett set the standard for much of the work that would follow" - INDEPENDENT

"One of the foremost practitioners of the hard-boiled detective story" - SCOTSMAN

"Hammett's prose is clean and entirely unique. His characters are as sharp and economically defined as any in American literature" - NEW YORK TIMES

"Not just the first of the tough school of crime-writing but the best" - THE TIMES

"The dean of the school of hard-boiled fiction" - NEW YORK TIMES