Continental Op - Complete List of Stories

Complete List of Stories

• "Arson Plus" (Black Mask, Oct. 1, 1923) (as Peter Collinson) (CS). Suspecting insurance fraud, the Op investigates the burning of an isolated farmhouse and its reclusive inhabitant.
• "Slippery Fingers" (Black Mask, 15 Oct. 1923) (as Peter Collinson) (CS)
• "Crooked Souls" (“The Gatewood Caper”) (Black Mask, Oct. 15, 1923) (BK) (CS). A bullying lumber baron has lost a daughter to kidnappers, but the Op isn't convinced - of anything.
• "It” (“The Black Hat That Wasn't There”) (Black Mask, Nov. 1, 1923)
• "Bodies Piled Up" (“House Dick”) (Black Mask, December 1, 1923) (NT). Posing as a killer hunting a killer works too well as the Op gets caught in a crossfire.
• "The Tenth Clew" (Black Mask, January 1, 1924) (CO) (CS) (RO). A rich man is killed with a typewriter and the Op gets dumped into San Francisco Bay.
• "Night Shots" (Black Mask, February 1924) (NT). In a lonely country house, the Op investigates pot-shots aimed at a sick old scoundrel.
• "Zigzags of Treachery" (Black Mask, March 1, 1924) (NT) (CS). When a prominent surgeon commits suicide and an unknown wife shows up, the Op and other agents follow suspect after suspect to untangle a decades-old conspiracy.
• "One Hour" (Black Mask, April 1924) (NT) (RO). In a busy hour, a hit-and-run leads the Op to a print shop where he's mobbed.
• "The House in Turk Street" (Black Mask, April 15, 1924) (CO) (CS). Routine questions on a quiet street tumble the Op into a den of thieves.
• "The Girl with Silver Eyes" (Black Mask, June 1924) (CO) (CS). Following on "Turk Street", a dead poet leads the Op to a dark night's shootout outside a rough-and-tumble roadhouse.
• "Women, Politics and Murder” (“Death on Pine Street”) (Black Mask, September 1924) (NT) (CS). The Op shuttles between a hysterical wife and a dead-pan mistress, knowing both are liars, to learn who killed a city contractor.
• "The Golden Horseshoe" (Black Mask, November 1924) (CO) (CS). The Op finds a hophead husband who ran away to Tijuana, but the wife he left behind turns up dead.
• "Who Killed Bob Teal?" (True Detective Stories, November 1924) (NT). A fellow Continental detective was killed while shadowing a suspect, so the Op and a city cop retrace his steps.
• "Mike, Alec or Rufus?” (“Tom, Dick or Harry”) (Black Mask, January 1925) (NT). The cops are stumped by a robber who ran into an apartment house and didn't come out, but not the Op.
• "The Whosis Kid" (Black Mask, March 1925) (CO) (CS) (RO). On a hunch, the Op trails a stick-up artist and worms his way into a "double-, triple- and septuple-cross."
• "The Scorched Face" (Black Mask, May 1925) (BK) (CS). Hunting two missing daughters, the Op uncovers a rash of debutante suicides and disappearances.
• "Corkscrew" (Black Mask, September 1925) (BK). The Op is appointed Deputy Sheriff of Corkscrew, Arizona, where cowboys keep getting killed.
• "Dead Yellow Women" (Black Mask, November 1925) (BK) (CS). The Op braves the dark alleys of Chinatown to learn why a seaside mansion was raided by Asian strangers.
• The Gutting of Couffignal (Black Mask, December 1925) (BK) (CS) (RO). On a wealthy summer island, the Continental Op tries to thwart an invasion when the lights go off and machine guns fire up.
• "The Creeping Siamese" (Black Mask, March 1926) (CS)
• "The Big Knockover" (Black Mask, February 1927) (BK) (CS). An army of imported gangsters raided two banks, and the Op dodges bullets and fists to find the mastermind.
• "$106,000 Blood Money" (Black Mask, May 1927) (BK) (CS). In the aftermath of "The Big Knockover", the Op hunts the double-crossing mastermind, as do "half the crooks in the country".
• "The Main Death" (Black Mask, June 1927) (CO) (CS). The Op ignores a murder to get back $20,000 - at gun point.
• Stories republished as Red Harvest
  • "The Cleansing of Poisonville" (Black Mask, November 1927). Summoned to "Poisonville", the Op finds his client was murdered. The dead man's father rules the town, so the Op strikes a deal to clean up the town "with a free hand". Dodging double-crossing cops and crooks, he exposes the murderer. And refuses to call off the "cleansing".
  • "Crime Wanted - Male or Female" (Black Mask, December 1927). Stirring up trouble, the Op un-fixes a fight and investigates a year-old "suicide" of the police chief's brother, just as someone dynamites the City Hall holding cells. "Poisonville was beginning to boil out under the lid."
  • "Dynamite" (Black Mask, January 1928). A raid on a bootlegger's roadhouse makes the cops miss a bank robbery. As the mob ruling "Poisonville" gathers for a "peace conference", the Op tosses "dynamite" that exposes multiple frame-ups and shatters the partnership.
  • "The 19th Murder" (Black Mask, February 1928). Getting "blood simple as the natives", the Op wakes to find he may have ice-picked his female informer, so runs from the law while steering the mobs into a final battle for control of "Poisonville".
• "This King Business" (Mystery Stories, January 1928) (BK) (CS). Seeking a wayward son in the Balkan country of Muravia, the Op learns the boy is funding a kingly coup.
• Stories republished as The Dain Curse
  • "Black Lives" (Black Mask, November 1928)
  • "The Hollow Temple" (Black Mask, December 1928)
  • "Black Honeymoon" (Black Mask, January 1929)
  • "Black Riddle" (Black Mask, February 1929)
• "Fly Paper" (Black Mask, August 1929) (BK) (CS). The Op finds a "wandering daughter" who liked rough "yeggs" and ended up dead.
• "The Farewell Murder" (Black Mask, February 1930) (CO) (CS). The Op struggles to prove a vendetta-bent sadist wasn't nine hours away at the time of a grisly killing.
• "Death and Company" (Black Mask, November 1930) (RO)

BK = These stories appear in The Big Knockover

CO = These stories appear in The Continental Op

RO = These stories appear in The Return Of the Continental Op

NT = These stories appear in Nightmare Town

CS = These stories appear in Crime Stories and Other Writings