The Continental Op Timeline and Summary

The Op arrives in Personville to find that his client Donald Willsson has been murdered.
The Op spreads false information in an attempt to stir up the city and start a gang warfare.
After the Op figures out who murdered Donald, he then shifts his focus to setting the local gangsters against each other.
The Op finds himself spending a lot of time with Dinah Brand, but nothing happens between them.
As the bodies start piling up, the Op becomes increasingly bloodthirsty and he confesses to Dinah that he's enjoying all the killing.
The next morning, the Op wakes up to find Dinah murdered by an ice pick that he's holding.
Now wanted by the police, the Op tracks down the last two living gangsters, Whisper and Reno, who have both shot each other at gunpoint. Reno confesses to murdering Dinah and the Op is off the hook.
By the end of the novel, the gangsters have all been killed, and the Op returns a corruption-free Personville to Elihu.