Among the more popular of the Continental Op stories, Dashiell Hammett's 'Corkscrew' follows the Op on an unusual mission. He is dispatched to Corkscrew, Arizona, a scorching border town where murders, smuggling, and lawlessness have overwhelmed the local authorities.

Hired by worried landowners and appointed deputy sheriff, the Op confronts a volatile community divided among rival criminal factions. He faces gunmen, corrupt (or frightened) residents, and repeated threats, relying on observation, endurance, and carefully calculated violence rather than conventional police procedure.

Placing the Continental Op in a Western setting might appear unusual at first, but the result is a notably tough, darkly comic tale of restoring order through strategy, nerve, force, and moral ambiguity.

'Corkscrew' is presented here in its original and unabridged format.