The Continental Op is the first fully hard-boiled hero in American letters. - The New YorkerHammett's prose was clean and entirely unique. His characters were as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction. - New York TimesHammett took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley... [he] gave murder back to the people who commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse. - Raymond ChandlerDashiell Hammett is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer. - Boston GlobeGreat crime fiction started with Hammett. - James EllroyHammett was breaking new ground in every book he wrote. - George Pelecanos