“Hammett’s prose was clean and entirely unique. His characters were as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction.” —The New York Times Dashiell Hammett’s second novel, The Dain Curse (1929), is a razor-edged exploration of deceit, addiction, and the sinister allure of the supernatural. When a cache of stolen diamonds leads to a string of violent deaths, the Continental Op—Hammett’s nameless, hard-bitten detective—finds himself entangled with the Dain family, a clan shadowed by rumor and tragedy. At the center is Gabrielle Dain Leggett, a fragile young woman haunted by the belief that her bloodline is cursed. From fog‑choked city streets to the isolated coastal refuge of a sinister religious cult, the Op fights his way through frame‑ups, inside jobs, and a bloodline rotted by greed. Hammett blends classic detection with psychological unease in a tale that exposes the thin line between guilt and madness. Beneath its twisting plot lies a bleak moral terrain—one that helped forge the gritty realism of modern crime fiction. Taut, sardonic, and unsentimental, The Dain Curse shows Hammett at his most daring: transforming the detective story into an instrument of American literary modernism. This Warbler Classics edition includes an extensive biographical timeline. Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) was a pioneering American writer who created the hard-boiled school of detective fiction, introducing characters like Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles. Drawing on his experience as a Pinkerton detective, Hammett’s novels such as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man set new standards for realism and style in crime literature. His works had a lasting impact on both literature and film, especially in shaping the film noir genre. "Hammett's prose was clean and entirely unique. His characters were as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction." -The New York Times "The exuberance of language, the relish with which seediness is described ... it's a pleasure to imagine young Hammett cutting loose with whatever rascally high jinks he could cook up." -Margaret Atwood Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was a pioneering American writer who created the hard-boiled school of detective fiction, introducing characters like Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles. Drawing on his experience as a Pinkerton detective, Hammett's novels such as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man set new standards for realism and style in crime literature. His works had a lasting impact on both literature and film, especially in shaping the film noir genre.