There's a lot of hard-boiled detective types out there always trying to show off how hard-boiled they are, but the hardest of them all is the continental op. Dude so hard-boiled, he doesn't even have a name. He's just an anonymous, overweight, middle-aged guy who gets the job done. And when he gets it done, it stays done. Of all his outings, Red Harvest is the best and the darkest. If you like the detective stuff, or you just like your stories dark and businesslike (and soaked in cheap gin), you really should read it, before anyone finds out what you lack.
If you've seen Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars, or Last Man Standing, same basic idea. The op is called into some little town, but before he can meet his client, the guy's murdered. Turns out the town is owned by a quartet of crooks (one of them the chief of police). He talks the town's wealthy (and now powerless) founder into bankrolling him to clean up the place, and he sets out to light dynamite under the whole thing. He sets the crooks against each other, and in a little while they're at each others' throats, and in the end there's nothing left but a lot of blood. Brilliant.
More to read: Salon on Red Harvest, and an overview and some images of different editions.
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