The Dain Curse — Dashiell Hammett

From a crime writer and “literary landmark,” this 1920s mystery features an ill-fated femme fatale and the detective who uncovers a strange truth (The New York Times Book Review).
 
It should have been a straightforward investigation: eight diamonds stolen from a prominent San Francisco family. But for the Continental Op, or the Op, as the detective summoned to the case is known, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Especially when the man who called in the crime turns up dead. And his daughter, socialite Gabrielle Dain Leggett, is leaving a trail of bodies in her wake. Is Gabrielle a victim of an alleged family curse? Or is there something even more dangerous about her? Smart and steadfast, the Op is bound to find the truth -- no matter how bizarre it may be.
 
“Dashiell Hammett is an original. He is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer.” -- The Boston Globe
 
“Hammett's prose [is] clean and entirely unique. His characters [are] as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction.” -- The New York Times
 
“[Hammett] was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.” -- Raymond Chandler