Gutting of Couffignal

The Continental Op takes what should be a simple job: guard a mansion full of wedding presents on a ritzy island in San Francisco Bay while the happy couple honeymoon. Then the lights go out. A coordinated gang hits the island with military precision, and suddenly the Op is trapped in a war zone, fighting for his life against overwhelming force. What begins as a guard gig becomes a desperate night of survival and violent counterattack. Hammett writes combat the way he writes everything else - lean, brutal, stripped of heroics. The Op doesn't monologue or philosophize; he acts, bleeds, and survives. This is Hammett at his most stripped-down and violent, a noir war story that reads like nothing else in the genre.