Arson Plus

Introducing the Continental Op - one of the first hard-boiled private investigators. Suspecting insurance fraud, the Op investigates the burning of an isolated farmhouse and its reclusive inhabitant. Dashiell Hammett, the father of hard-boiled crime fiction, created the Continental Op in 1923. Hammett used the pseudonum Peter Collinson when this story was first published in Black Mask Magazine. "Arson Plus" was followed by 35 more stories featuring the Op.