From 'The Big Knockover' to the beginnings of the Poisonville stories, 1927 was a very important year for Dashiell Hammett and the Continental Op.
The Big Knockover was followed by the sequel $106,000 Blood Money. These two stories paved the way for Hammett's exploration of longer stories that led to novels. At the end of the year Hammett wrote The Cleansing of Poisonville and Crime Wanted – Male or Female. These two novelettes became the first two parts of his novel Red Harvest published in 1929.
The Big Knock-Over
Before they actually do it, one is inclined to say it isn't done. But the gang warfare in Illinois, the big mail-truck holdup in Jersey found bandits using airplanes, bombs and machine guns. And now Mr. Hammett pictures a daring action that is almost stunning in its scope and effectiveness—yet can anyone be sure that it isn't likely to occur?
A fifteen chapter novella.
$106,000 Blood Money
THE BIG KNOCK-OVER told of the looting of two banks by a large band of crooks gathered from all parts of the country for that purpose. Following the successful getaway with the plunder, a number of well-known members of the underworld of various cities are found murdered. These men were seen before the holdup and were suspected leaders of small groups participating in it. It becomes evident that the division of spoils is to be made among a few rather than between many. Murder succeeds murder, as the Continental detective narrows his search for the unknown head of the huge plot. In the end he finds him, only to let him escape, as the price of his own life, without knowing him to be the man he was after. $106,000 BLOOD MONEY is a sequel to THE BIG KNOCK-OVER.
A twelve chapter novella.
The Main Death
A curious tangle of a robbery, a mysterious killing and jealousy.
The Cleansing of Poisonville
In recent years there have been too many examples where civic politics has degenerated into a business for profit. This story is the first, complete, episode in a series dealing with a city whose administrators have gone mad with power and lust of wealth. It is, also, to our minds, the ideal detective story—the new type of detective fiction which Black Mask is seeking to develop. You go along with the detective, meeting action with him, watching the development as the plot is unfolded, finding the clues as he finds them; and you have the feeling that you are living through the tense, exciting scenes rather than just reading a story. Poisonville is written by a master of his craft.
A fourteen chapter novelette
Crime Wanted— Male or Female
The grim adventures of the Continental detective in The Cleansing of Poisonville.
An eleven chapter novelette.
