The Continental Op; Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama

 

I so rarely enjoy books of short stories, especially by the same author. This was an exception. Which is sort of ironic, because I'm not really a huge fan of Hammett's full length novels. I should be: they're noir and set in California in a fascinating time period and have all that lovely P.I. slang, but I just don't. I read "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man", and thought they were okay, not great. And I have no desire to reread them. 

This book was different. The short story format really seems to work well for Hammett's writing style. The detective's name is never revealed but he works for San Francisco office of the Continental Detective Agency. One of the stories was particularly good: "The House on Turk Street". I really enjoyed the twists in that one, and it was nice he tied it up later in "The Girl with Silver Eyes". 

Sigh. 

I wanted to love this book, I truly did, because I *love* Bob Odenkirk on "Better Call Saul" and "Breaking Bad". I actually prefer "Saul" to "Breaking Bad", an opinion I know is in the minority (at least in my family). But I think he's such a terrific actor who did a great job of making a not terribly sympathetic character one you want to root for. It's a talent for sure (and yes, I know the writers have a lot to do with it, but if a lesser actor were playing the role all the best writing in the world wouldn't make a damn bit of difference). 

So it breaks my heart to say it wasn't that great. Odenkirk had a long career before Saul Goodman and I've seen nothing from those early years. He went into a lot of detail about a show he did with David Cross on HBO called "Mr. Show" and, since I haven't seen a minute of it, it went totally over my head. For super hardcore Odenkirk fans who have seen a lot of his work this book would probably be more interesting. I just couldn't muster up the enthusiasm for it.