As a foreword of sorts, we’ve included a recently re-discovered interview with Hammett from the latter half of 1929 that was featured in The Brooklyn Daily Magazine: “House Burglary Poor Trade.”

It’s a great little prelude for the story to come, as it gives you a peek into the detective-mind that birthed the “complicated mechanism” known as Continental Op.

And, based on our research, it seems to be the uncredited source material from which most of the syndicated reviews and advertisements originated for The Dain Curse, as most that we’ve encountered in newspapers and magazines from the second half of 1929 either quote the interview verbatim or subtly remix it in clever ways.

As for the text, we’ve trimmed some hyphenated words so they read a bit easier: good-bye is now goodbye, week-end has become weekend, and so on.

Additionally, we’ve appended 120+ footnotes to provide clarity, context, and commentary as necessary, especially due to the many slang terms and expressions Hammett spattered willy-nilly throughout the story.

All told, we think our edition is really eggs in the coffee. Cheers!

“Hammett’s hard-boiled little ‘op’ is back on the job.” —Sacramento Union

“Employing the same methods as in Red Harvest . . . The Dain Curse will be no disappointment to those who enjoyed Mr. Hammett’s former book.” —The Bookman

“As far superior to his previous effort that it should not be put in the same class. The Dain Curse is an exceedingly complicated story, but is at the same time a topnotcher.” —The Mansfield News

“Hammett’s prose retains such effortless bite and snap.” —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

“You can journey far before you will find more murders within one cover than in The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett . . . And yet, it is quite impossible to lay the book down until the last man has been shot.” —Witchita Daily Times

“A fearfully exciting story . . . bursting with character and incident.” —Everyman

“An extremely good detective story of the sensational type.” —Sunday Express

“Some time during the years from 1927 through 1930 Hammett reached his peak — I personally think with The Dain Curse — both as a stylist and as a contributor to the tradition of the American literary hard-boiled hero.” —David Madden, Tough Guy Writers of the Thirties

“Everything in these stories moves like an express train, with bodies cluttering up the roads.” —Richard Wald, Chicago Tribune Book World

“The talk is tough and to the point, the action is hard and fast, and the telling is swift and sure.” —Oxford Times

The Dain Curse