The Dain Curse

A handful of stolen diamonds should be a routine case. Instead, they draw the Continental Op into the affairs of the strange Dain family, where theft gives way to murder, morphine, religious fanaticism, and whispers of a hereditary curse.At the center of it all is Gabrielle Leggett, a troubled young woman seemingly pursued by violence and death. As the bodies accumulate and the case grows increasingly bizarre, the Op finds himself navigating family secrets, elaborate deceptions, and horrors that seem to defy rational explanation. But in Dashiell Hammett's world, the truth is rarely supernatural-and almost never comforting.Blending the relentless logic of the hard-boiled detective story with the atmosphere of Gothic mystery and psychological horror, The Dain Curse is one of Hammett's strangest and most compelling novels: a story in which superstition, manipulation, addiction, and murder become nearly impossible to separate.This Bell & Brier American Noir pocket series edition presents a foundational work of American crime fiction in an attractive, compact format designed for inexpensive, portable reading.Essential reading for lovers of classic noir, hard-boiled mysteries, Gothic crime, and detectives unwilling to believe in ghosts until every other explanation has been exhausted.