Now for the first time ever in one volume, all twenty-eight stories and two serialized novels starring the Continental Op—one of the greatest characters in storied history of detective fiction. Dashiell Hammett is the father of modern hard-boiled detective stories. His legendary works have been lauded for almost one hundred years by fans, and his novel The Maltese Falcon was adapted into a classic film starring Humphrey Bogart. One of Dashiell Hammett's most memorable characters, the Continental Op made his debut in Black Mask magazine on October 1, 1923, narrating the first of twenty-eight stories and two novels that would change forever the face of detective fiction. The Op is a tough, wry, unglamorous gumshoe who has inspired a following that is both global and enduring. He has been published in periodicals, paperback digests, and short story collections, but until now, he has never, in all his ninety-two years, had the whole of his exploits contained in one book. The book features all twenty-eight of the original standalone Continental Op stories, the original serialized versions of Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, and previously unpublished material. This anthology of Continental Op stories is the only complete, one-volume work of its kind.

‘Live at the Continental’...The inside story of the world famous Continental Baths I built the Continental Baths in 1968 and discovered Bette Midler in 1969. The Baths were not only an expression of sexual liberation, but also heralded in a rebirth of Cabaret in the city of New York. Artists of the ilk of Barry Manilow, Manhattan Transfer, Peter Allen, Margaret Whiting, Melba Moore, Liz Torres, Patti LaBelle and countless others in addition to Bette got their first big break at the Continental Baths. The Baths and I are the subject of several chapters in the latest biography of Bette called Bette (1995 Birch Lane press, Carol Publishing Group). The Baths and I have also been extensively written about in Bette’s own book, A View From A Broad, Barry Manilow’s autobiography My Sweet Life; James Gavin’s Intimate Nights; The Golden Age of Cabaret, Stephen Maclean’s The Boy From Oz, and countless other books depicting the age of sexual revolution etc. In addition the Baths were the subject of a major motion picture The Ritz, which was released in the late seventies. The Continental was a phenomenon that came out of a pre-AIDS world that we will probably never experience again. But more than just being a bathhouse and showplace, the Baths were a place where people came out of their closets and found out who they were. It was the first gay establishment to treat gay people as equals and not exploit them. It was instrumental in having the laws against homosexuality rescinded and gave birth, along with Stonewall, to a whole generation where gay was in. Beyond that it ushered in an era of sexual liberation and alternative lifestyles that, to this day, has never been equaled. I feel that it is now time for me to tell the whole story of the Baths for the first time. The inside story of how and why it came about, and the whole subculture is engendered. But far from being just another chronicle of a bygone era, and as I was a rather prominent fellow in the gay world, having been crowned ‘King Queen’ in a 16-page Rolling Stone article, I also relate my own life story, leading up to what motivated me to create such a place and the ramifications it had on myself and my family as I, too, was liberated together with the Baths. Much has been written about the Baths, but the story of how it came about---the 200 raids by the New York Police Department; the pressures from the Mafia; the famous people who visited it; the relationships that were formed; the drug culture that existed in the city; the political upheaval in the city of New York---all of this has never been revealed. During the 8 years that the Continental was in vogue, over 1 million people a year came through its doors. I believe that there is a large market for this book in the gay world, where it is internationally famous, and in the straight world, because of the prominence of its stars. The gay population of the US, using Kinsey’s formula of about 10% to 16% of the population, would be well over 20 million. Latest census figures show that 25% of that population is over the age of 40. These 5 million people, I would presume, would be our primary target. The book, however, would not only appeal to those who lived through the 70’s, but also to the young amongst us to whom the 70’s, the Baths and Bette Midler represent a fascinating golden era that they will never experience, but can only read about. Woven through the book is my own journey as I simultaneously pursued an operatic career, having sung with some of the most famous opera stars in the world in Germany, France, the United States, Canada and Australia. I also try to explore and share the confusion and frustrations I have felt as a bisexual, not understood by the gay or the straight world.

The first five Continental Op stories, written in 1923 by Dashiell Hammett and published in The Black Mask magazine.Written in first person, these are the stories of an unnamed operative for the Continental Detective Agency. The operative deals with the gamut of human crime and cruelty. Arson Plus (1923) Crooked Souls (1923) Slippery Fingers (1923) Bodies Piled Up (1923) It (1923)

The steadfast and sturdy Continental Op has been summoned to the town of Personville—known as Poisonville—a dusty mining community splintered by competing factions of gangsters and petty criminals. The Op has been hired by Donald Willsson, publisher of the local newspaper, who gave little indication about the reason for the visit. No sooner does the Op arrive, than the body count begins to climb . . . starting with his client. With this last honest citizen of Poisonville murdered, the Op decides to stay on and force a reckoning—even if that means taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

When eight diamonds are stolen from a prominent San Francisco family, the Continental Op is called in to investigate. But the missing jewels aren’t the only thing out of the ordinary. The man who reported the burglary ends up dead, ostensibly a suicide. His daughter, one of the suspects, Miss Gabrielle Dain Leggett, has a penchant for morphine and religious cults. She also has an unfortunate effect on the people around her: they have a habit of dying. Might Gabrielle be the victim of an arcane family curse? Or is the truth about her stranger and even more dangerous? The Dain Curse is one of the Continental Op’s most bizarre cases and a tautly crafted masterpiece of suspense.

The San Andreas Fault is both a real and a metaphorical player in this novel of California in the early 70s, set on a ranch near Monterey Bay where, in the legendary land of promise, abundant possibilities and agents of destruction live side by side.

Essential tales from the files of San Francisco’s hard-bitten, prototypical PI—penned by the undisputed “master of the detective novel” (The Boston Globe). Before Dashiell Hammett introduced such iconic sleuths as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon or Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man, he put to work the most influential detective ever to scour America’s hard-boiled literary landscape. An operative of San Francisco’s Continental Detective Agency, the Continental Op was a world-weary, pragmatic, and inelegant company man—and though always nameless, he has remained as distinctive as a fingerprint. Informed by Hammett’s own work with the Pinkertons, the twenty-three stories collected here—originally published between 1923 and 1930—introduced a bracing, jaded, dry-witted realism to the genre. Written with “the precision of a diamond cutter,” they are seminal masterworks in the legacy of a genuine original (Newsweek).