Crooked Souls

Crooked Souls is a short story by Dashiell Hammett, first published in the October 15, 1923 issue of Black Mask. It’s among the earliest cases featuring his unnamed Continental Op.

The case begins when a hard-driving industrialist hires the Op after his daughter apparently vanishes, leaving a ransom demand. What looks routine quickly turns into a kidnapping that refuses to stay simple, as the detective sifts through clashing motives, evasions, and family secrets.

Hammett builds the mystery with cool, methodical detection and a streak of moral ambiguity: money, power, and pride distort the truth as much as any criminal plot. The result is a brisk, unsentimental portrait of how appearances mislead—and how leverage decides outcomes.

Often reprinted under the alternate title “The Gatewood Caper,” the story showcases Hammett’s lean, hard-boiled style in a taut investigation that helped define the genre.

"Harvey Gatewood had issued orders that I was to be admitted as soon as I arrived, so it only took me a little less than fifteen minutes to thread my way past the doorkeepers, office boys, and secretaries who filled up most of the space between the Gatewood Lumber Corporation’s front door and the president’s private office."