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Standalone Books in Order
Below you'll find the complete list of Standalone books in publication order. This is generally the recommended reading order for the series.
Reading order verified: April 2026
Quick Answer
What order should I read the Standalone series? Start with "Red Harvest" (1929) and follow publication order through all 30 books.
The complete Standalone reading order is listed below in publication sequence.
Publication Order
Red Harvest
1929
The Dain Curse
1929
The Glass Key
1931
Woman In The Dark
1933
The Thin Man
1934
They Can Only Hang You Once
1944
The Barber and His Wife (As:Peter Collinson)
1922
The Road Home (As:Peter Collinson)
1922
The Sardonic Star of Tom Doody (As:Peter Collinson)
1923
The Vicious Circle (As:Peter Collinson)
1923
Arson Plus (As:Peter Collinson)
1923
Slippery Fingers (As:Peter Collinson)
1923
Laughing Masks / When Luck's Running Good (As:Peter Collinson)
1923
Itchy / Itchy the Debonair (As:Peter Collinson)
1924
The Hunter
2013
The Adventures of Sam Spade and Other Stories
1944
A Man Called Spade
1944
Hammett Homicides
1946
Dead Yellow Woman
1947
Creeping Siamese and Other Stories
1950
Nightmare Town and Other Stories
1950
The Big Knockover
1966
The Continental Op
1974
Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories and Other Writings
2001
Dashiell Hammett: A Retrospective Anthology (With: Jack Adrian)
2004
Vintage Hammett
2005
Lost Stories (With: Joe Gores)
2005
Return of the Thin Man (With: Julie M. Rivett)
2012
The Hunter and Other Stories
2013
The Continental Op Casebook, Vol. 1
2025
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