#1 in the Crime Masterworks series - a library of the finest crime novels and thrillers ever published Voted the best hard-boiled novel of the 20th century by the Mystery Writers of America 'Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse ... he did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all' - Raymond Chandler

B.1894, d.1961. After spells as newsboy, freight clerk, labourer, messenger, stevedore and advertising manager, Hammett became an operative of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. His experiences as a private detective laid the foundation for his writing career.