Liza Cody's Anna Lee works for a large London agency owned by
a retired policeman who works closely with the police. Lee
herself had put in several years as a policeman. Later, Lee
employs Eva Wylie, but I don't remember whether Lee's still
an employee or has gone out on her own. Lots of authors
(e.g., Rucka, Munger) work for or run small agencies, but
Cody's the only one that comes to mind that fits the Op
pattern.
Joy
William Denton <
buff@pobox.com> mused:
> Continental Op stories usually start with the Op
going to see the person
> that hired the agency and interviewing them about
the case. He doesn't
> sit around in an office waiting for work wondering
where the money will
> come from. In fact he and the other operatives seem
busy all the time.
> He never mentions details about how much the agency
charges.
>
> The Op works very closely with the police, and he's
pretty much a private
> cop. (The Pinkertons could be a private army
sometimes.) An entire half
> of the cliched hardboiled dick doesn't apply to him.
Maybe he's just a
> short, fat, middle-aged middle-class guy who has a
job he likes, but it's
> not his life.
>
> What post-Continental Op characters worked for a
large agency? I can't
> think of any. Spade had a partner (for a while),
Marlowe worked alone.
> They're the two classic characters. In the '20s, was
BLACK MASK running
> other stories about agencies? Did that background
just die out, or was
> the Op rare even then?
>
> I seem to remember that Jonathan Latimer's Bill
Crane worked for a small
> agency, but three or ten people is nothing to the
Continental's reach.
> They had branches everywhere and always extra
operatives available to
> help.
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