title: The Dain Curse, The Glass Key, and Selected Stories
author:  Dashiell Hammett 
description: &#8220;Dashiell Hammett is an original. He is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer.&#8221;<br>&#8212;BOSTON GLOBE<br> <br>&#8220;Hammett could no more vulgarize his imaginative methods than he could his spare and elegant style . . . Hammett&#8217;s art . . . transform[ed] the possibilities for art among his successors.&#8221; <br>&#8212;NEW YORK TIMES<br><br>&#8220;These [Continental Op] tales show Hammett writing with the precision of a diamond cutter.&#8221; <br>&#8212;NEWSWEEK<br><br>&#8220;Not just the first of the tough school of crime-writing but the best.&#8221; <br>&#8212;THE TIMES (London)<br> <br>&#8220;Hammett had to fit social realism into a suffocatingly contrived form. He did it with language&#8212;densely spare exposition and multilayered dialogue. He gave us a spellbinding male discourse&#8212;The Maneuver as moral crusade, the job holder&#8217;s aria and torch song.&#8221;<br>&#8212;from the Introduction by James Ellroy
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  Crooked Finger and the Warl of the Dead
  
  
  
  
  
  Book Four of the Chronicles of the Prophetess and Hammer Bearer
  
  
  
  
  
  Rex Hazelton
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Crooked Finger and the Warl of the Dead
  
  
  
  
  
  Book Four of the Chronicles of the Prophetess and Hammer Bearer
  
  
  
  
  
  Rexford Hazelton Copyright 2018
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  [Table of Contents](part0000_split_000.html#Title)
  
  
  
  
  
  [Title Page](part0000_split_000.html#Title)
  
  
  [Copyright](part0000_split_001.html#Copyright)
  
  
  [Table of Contents](part0000_split_002.html#TOC)
  
  
  [Dedication](part0000_split_003.html#Dedication)
  
  
  [Prophecy](part0000_split_004.html#Prophecy)
  
  
  [Chapter 1: Cork and Cups](part0000_split_005.html#One)
  
  
  [Chapter 2: Spell of the White Hand](part0000_split_006.html#Two)
  
  
  [Chapter 3: Bro'Noon](part0000_split_007.html#Three)
  
  
  [Chapter 4: The Broyn'Dar](part0000_split_008.html#Four)
  
  
  [Chapter 5: The Hag Encampment](part0000_split_009.html#Five)
  
  
  [Chapter 6: An Unexpected Wraith](