"because it’s the nature of man to poke around in ruins." great line from the story

Arson Plus was the first Continental Op story.

Character List



Continental Detective Agency’s San Francisco office
Mr. Thornburgh his house burned down
Mrs. Evelyn Trowbridge A niece in San Francisco
The Coonses, Thornburgh’s help,











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The story is a brief detective workout in the Continental Op series. Story arc were quite simple - arson and insurance but mostly the character's dialogues are engaging, it does feel rushed in the end but a good read for those who like a nice short read. Definitely a boy's read and the language are pretty dense but acceptable for a classic. I'm looking forward to read The Maltese Falcon. ( )

Primer relato corto de Dashiell Hammett, que se publicó posteriormente en el libro “The black mask”

Although better known for Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man series) this short story is the first of the so-called Continental op stories. There were over 30 of these stories published. This detective, sometimes known as the Continental Detective, was a no-nonsense private detective determined to give his client(s) a thorough investigation of any nefarious activity.

This story, written in 1923, concerns a case of suspected arson. In this case, I thought the characters were very believable. I supposed there are red herrings thrown in, but the case is not solved easily. It certainly has a hard-boiled edge to it.

Between 1923 and 1930, these stories were almost all published in the Black Mask magazine. Some of these stories were combined to become novels, the most famous of which is known as the Red Harvest. According to Wikipedia, Time Magazine called this novel one of the 100 best English language novels published between 1923 and 2005. ( )