A seminal work of the hard-boiled detective genre, Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel introduces the Continental Op, a frequent character in the author’s fiction and a clear precursor to the morally ambiguous detectives of later works. The narrative is set in the fictional Personville, which locals have dubbed "Poisonville" due to its pervasive corruption and control by rival gangs. When the Op arrives to meet a newspaper publisher who is murdered before their meeting, he takes on the mission of cleaning up the city. Rejecting traditional detective work, the Op employs a ruthless and unconventional strategy: he orchestrates a full-scale gang war, stirring up chaos and violence to force the truth to the surface. This gritty and chaotic story is a masterpiece of action and moral ambiguity, exploring how the detective himself can become tainted by the pervasive corruption of the world he seeks to fix.

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