The Dain Curse, Dashiell Hammett
The Dain Curse, Dashiell Hammett
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The Dain Curse

Author: Dashiell Hammett

Narrator: Richard Ferrone

Unabridged: 7 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/2011


Synopsis

The Continental Op is a short, squat, and utterly unsentimental tank of a private detective. Miss Gabrielle Dain Leggett is young, wealthy, and a devotee of morphine and religious cults. She has an unfortunate effect on the people around her: they have a habit of dying violently. Is Gabrielle the victim of a family curse? Or is the truth about her weirder and infinitely more dangerous? The Dain Curse is one of the Continental Op's most bizarre cases and a tautly crafted masterpiece of suspense.

About Dashiell Hammett

Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He is widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time. In addition to The Maltese Falcon, his pioneering novels include Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and the #1 New York Times bestseller The Thin Man.

About Richard Ferrone

Read by Richard Ferrone, Stephen Bel Davies, Prentice Onayemi, Scott Aiello, Michael David Axtell, Jessica B. Harris, and Amanda Leigh Cobb


Reviews

Goodreads review by Glenn on March 29, 2021

The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett, father of the modern crime novel, is not only an action-packed tale of misdeeds and murder, but a study of 1920s American culture and society. Within the novel’s pages, here is a sampling of what a reader will encounter: First-Person Hard Boiled Narrator The unnamed......more

Goodreads review by Jack on December 03, 2020

Here's a better look at the 1966 Penguin mass-market paperback I have. Sets a totally different tone compared to other editions I've seen.......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on April 15, 2020

Hammett is all business when it comes to his Continental Ops stories, The Dain Curse included, which started out as several separately published stories in the crime pulps. The gruff, short, overweight, middle aged detective remains nameless, his background and personal life a mystery. He gets to wo......more

Goodreads review by Kemper on September 13, 2019

The Continental Op is brought in after some diamonds go missing, but instead of solving a simple case of theft he ends up embroiled in the on-going troubles of a disturbed young woman who believes herself to be the victim of a family curse. This certainly isn’t the best Hammett you can read, but it’s......more

Goodreads review by Ian on September 03, 2021

CRITIQUE: Three's Enough for a Quartet I plunged straight into "The Dain Curse" after thoroughly enjoying "The Maltese Falcon". I wondered what resemblances there might be, but I was disappointed not to find any of much significance. Hammett initially wrote "The Dain Curse" in the form of four stori......more


Quotes

“Everything about the Leggett diamond heist indicated to the Continental Op that it was an inside job. From the stray diamond found in the yard to the eyewitness accounts of a ‘strange man’ casing the house, everything was just too pat. Gabrielle Dain-Leggett has enough secrets to fill a closet, and when she disappears shortly after the robbery, she becomes the Op’s prime suspect. But her father, Edgar Leggett, keeps some strange company himself and has a dark side the moon would envy. Before he can solve the riddle of the diamond theft, the Continental Op must first solve the mystery of this strange family.” Amazon.com, editorial review

“Not just the first of the tough school of crime-writing but the best…Hammett saw the rotten underbelly and wanted others to see it.” Times (London)

“Hammett’s heroes are not merely tough; they often confront violence with full knowledge of its inherently corrupting potential.” The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English

“Cool, tough, and hard-boiled in attitude, [Hammett’s] works employ Hemingway’s mood and spare, realistic dialogue in the genre of the detective story.” The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature

“There’s plenty of reason to suppose that Chandler wouldn’t have created Marlowe, Macdonald wouldn’t have created Archer, Nebel wouldn’t have created Donahue, etc., etc., etc., had Hammett not first created the Op.” Jim Doherty

“The Op, the durable survivor, just goes about his hired business and underplays his hand before he applies the thumbscrews…unhampered by either imagination or fear.” Kirkus Reviews

“In The Dain Curse the Op returns in a more melodramatic tale involving jewel theft, drugs, and a religious cult.” Library Journal