Arson Plus and Other Stories: Collected Case Files of the Continental Op: The Early Years, Volume 1 by Dashiell Hammett, Richard Layman (Editor), Julie M. Rivett (Editor)

Arson Plus and Other Stories: Collected Case Files of the Continental Op: The Early Years, Volume 1
by Dashiell Hammett, Richard Layman (Editor), Julie M. Rivett (Editor)
Pages: 100
Date: June 14 2016
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Series: Collected Case Files of the Continental Op: The Early Years, Volume 1 (The Continental Op)

Review
Rating: 3.90, 4.90, 4.0
Read: May 16 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and MysteriousPress.com/Open Road in exchange for an honest review.

This is not my first book by this author, though I am unsure how many I’ve actually read. Nor do I think that this is the first book I’ve read that involved the Continental Op.

The book opens with a quite interesting little section on the author – like how Hammett had been a private detective for three years, was in the military, and was off and on suffering from an illness. Plus, he spent the last ten years of his life unable to publish – because of the ‘red scare’ of the 1950s, and died owing massive amounts of money to the government (said in the book to be due to ‘penalties’ connected to the government wishing to ‘punish’ him.)

Oh, and directly important to the stories/writing – Hammett, before he began his writing career, took a course in writing. Something like ‘private secretary’, or the like, which gave him instruction in journalistic style writing – so that his stories stand out in the ‘Black Mask’ universe as being straight forward, solid works, without a lot of the lurid over-sensationalization that the other works tended to include.

Enough of that, that’s go to the short stories.

Arson Plus
First off – I learned another thing I hadn’t known – Dashiell Hammett wrote his first bunch of stories using at least one alias (and this story here, along with ‘Slippery Fingers’ (there is no mention of which author name was used with the middle story – ‘Crooked Souls’) used the name Peter Collinson). Apparently Hammett had started off writing jokes and satire – sending them off (and getting them published) in something called ‘Smartset’. The publisher of that magazine redirected Hammett to the less high-brow ‘Black Mask’ and redirected his writing.

Second off – this is not Hammett’s first story, and I am uncertain if it is the first Continental Op story. I kind of assume it is since the point of the project is to publish all of the Continental Op stories in a series of short story collections. So why am I uncertain? Because the first two short stories in this collection have the same date. Both appeared in the October 1st 1923 edition of the ‘Black Mask’ magazine.

Arson Plus involves a story about a house that burned down out in the country near Sacramento. The Continental Op operates out of San Francisco, but he was called in on the case, I believe by the insurance companies – since the fire department suspect arson.

This is a rather good solid story. And, despite the very limited number of characters involved, one that I didn’t ‘figure out’ before the end. It’s also not a hard-boiled detective story. Which I kind of knew going in – that, while Hammett is known as being deeply connected to hard-boiled detective stories, the Continental Op stories are more straight forward detective stories. Involving a detective with a large agency behind him. Completely unlike such people like Philip Marlowe, and Sam Spade, and the like, who operated mostly on their own (likely after their partner had been killed), drank a lot, and talked about dames. There is no mention of dames (though there is a woman in this story, and she is eye-balled – more in a ‘I’m a middle aged detective, maybe if I were younger I’d have appreciated being made to wait for her to ‘pretty’ herself up, but I just wanted the facts’ kind of eye-balling).

I’d give this story a rating somewhere between 3.75 to 4.20, and, to make an overall rating easier later on, I’d peg this as a 3.90 story.

Crooked Souls
As mentioned, this Continental Op story also appeared in ‘Black Mask’ magazine, and on October 1st 1923.

The Continental Op has been called in on a kidnapping case. A big powerful man has had his daughter taken from him. And he wants her back. Though he doesn’t wish to pay the kidnappers.

Two things first off – (1) private detectives, as shown in these first two stories, have a great relationship with the local police; heck, they literally work together on cases – sometimes taking direction from the private detective; (2) showing the difference between these types of stories and those involving the hard-boiled private detectives of Marlowe and Spade type – the Continental Op has a large number of people working with and for him. Though this time the action actually takes place in San Francisco (one of the favorite haunts of hard-boiled detectives of the early years).

To add a third thing I should have already mentioned – I learned, through the various notes here and there, that Hammett hadn’t actually intended to leave the character unnamed, but an unnamed detective seemed to have worked in the two Continental Op stories he’d had published by the time of the letter mentioning this issue, and ‘he doesn’t deserve a name’. He’s just a place-holder for the type of detective he worked with – large, fat, competent, no nonsense.

Rounding back to this short story – I rather enjoyed this one. Quite riveting in places. Quite worthy of a rating up near 4.90 stars. And another story that I didn’t spot immediately how it would turn out (though, this time, I had an idea, and I wasn’t off the mark; it’s the side things I hadn’t picked up on).

Slippery Fingers
In this third Continental Op story, and the last in this collection, Hammett again uses the Peter Collinson name on the byline. This story appeared in ‘Black Mask’ on October 15th 1923.

A rich older man has died. The police have bloody fingerprints and several directions to look, but cannot determine the killer. The rich old man’s son calls in a private detective, in the form of the Continental Op.

There’s a note at the beginning of the story from the author. I’m not sure if that’s something that had been there before the story in the magazine, or not. I’ve read a large number of short story magazines in my time, so I know that type of thing – a note before the story, does have a tendency to occur. I mention that because there’s a comment about how ‘you’ll have the time of your life trying to solve this crime…’. Which is odd, because, of the three stories in this book, this one was the least difficult to decipher.

No matter. Strong story. There’s a neat little trick that occurs that I can’t mention without being spoiler-y; it’s not the first time I’ve seen that trick before, though I didn’t expect to see it in a story from 1923.

Overall, I’d rate this one something around 4.0.

Overall
The first story involved arson, the second involved a kidnapping, and the third involved murder. The stories have a similar feel (as in, it felt like all three were in the same character universe), while, at the same time, didn’t stick to just one ‘thing’ to investigate. The stories should solid investigative powers, were not formulistic, and were quite entertaining.

These are three competent good mysteries. Mixture of detection, and action. Each story has a certain amount of violence, and two have gun-play.

A few of the words and phrases were a little strange, but otherwise there isn’t anything in here that feels dated or unnatural. The only example I can recall at this exact moment, of strange words/phrases, is how often the Continental Op mentioned the machine. Meaning an automobile. I believe that term was used in all three stories. ‘He had left Wayton in his machine, arriving about ten-thirty…’, ‘We get a machine, and take a look at what’s left . . .’, ‘I got back in our machine and . . .’ ‘I get a machine from the nearest garage and . . .’. This is the first time I’ve ever seen ‘machine’ used in reference to an automobile. There was mention of a ‘fire wagon’ in the first story, but I’d seen/heard that phrase before.

The story could easily have been written today. And set back in 1920. Heh. I mean, there are a lot of face to face meetings that would have taken place by cell phone and the like, and some bouncing around that would have been easier to handle with cameras/cell phones, and the like.

An enjoyable collection of short stories, and informative ‘other’ stuff (intro/letters from Hammett in regards to the stories). Overall, let me see, 3.9, 4.9, and 4.0. This equates to an overall rating of 4.27.

May 16 2016