Book Reviews of DAIN CURSE V827

The Dain Curse stars The Nameless Detective who investigates for the Continental Op PI agency. Set in San Francisco in the late 1920s, The Dain Curse starts in a standard way but gets wacky fast. The Nameless Detective investigates a diamond theft from the house of scientist Edgar Leggett. Ho-hum. But out of the blue Legget ends up dead. Revealed are family secrets, which make the miserable California families of Ross Macdonald seem like “Leave it to Beaver.” Hammett presents the rest of the novel in three distinct episodes. Reading the installments reminds us that they first appeared in the pulp magazine Black Mask over four issues prior to the publication of the novel.