Mon 21 Oct 2024
Diary Review / PI Stories I’m Reading: DASHIELL HAMMETT “The Gutting of Coufignal.”
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Stories I'm Reading[7] Comments
DASHIELL HAMMETT “The Gutting of Coufignal.” First published in Black Mask, First published in The Black Mask, December 1925. Collected in The Big Nightmare (Random House, 1966).
An island in San Pablo Bay, the home of wealthy retired businessmen, is attacked by bandits with machine guns and grenades, The Continental OP is on hand, guarding wedding presents. It is not difficult for him to suspect an inside job at once. The observant reader will also. (4)
— September 1968.
October 21st, 2024 at 10:47 pm
Another gem from Hammett. Is this the story where he steals a crutch from a cripple?? I could re-read these OP stories forever and never tire of them. Keep these old reviews coming Steve. They’re very enjoyable!!!
October 22nd, 2024 at 5:53 pm
More on their way, Paul, but I will be spreading them out as we go. I wish I remembered about the crutch and the cripple, but while I think you’re right, it’s been too long since I read the whole story.
October 22nd, 2024 at 3:48 am
I recall reading this in High School, Steve, and at the time I was simply swept along by Hammett’s violent prose and never even thought about the Inside Job angle.
October 22nd, 2024 at 5:54 pm
“… Hammett’s violent prose…”
Now that I remember!
October 23rd, 2024 at 12:45 am
“The Gutting of …” is the best story in ‘The Big Knockover’ if I remember it a-rightly. But then why was the collection (as a whole), called ‘The Big Knockover’? The outlandish yarn of a gang coalition taking over an entire US town should have been called that. Very confusing.
Anyway it’s pulse-pounding mayhem and I’ve always thought it should be made into a movie.
Maybe it has been adapted, somewhere/someway/somehow. I sure don’t know every thriller ever filmed.
October 26th, 2024 at 12:43 am
My favorite Op story, not the best, but my favorite, and the best last line in the series, plus it seems to forshadow RED HARVEST a bit.
October 26th, 2024 at 2:42 pm
Of all the OP stories there are, I think I have read this one the most number of times, and yet it has been over 40 years since I read it last. I like your line “… not the best, but my favorite.” A line that suits me, too, right now.