The Maltese Falcon (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Dashiell Hammett

The Maltese Falcon (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Dashiell Hammett

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Hardcover (Large Print)

Amazon.com
Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett's archetypally tough San Francisco detective, is more noir than L.A. Confidential and more vulnerable than Raymond Chandler's Marlowe. In The Maltese Falcon, the best known of Hammett's Sam Spade novels (including The Dain Curse and The Glass Key), Spade is tough enough to bluff the toughest thugs and hold off the police, risking his reputation when a beautiful woman begs for his help, while knowing that betrayal may deal him a new hand in the next moment.

Spade's partner is murdered on a stakeout; the cops blame him for the killing; a beautiful redhead with a heartbreaking story appears and disappears; grotesque villains demand a payoff he can't provide; and everyone wants a fabulously valuable gold statuette of a falcon, created as tribute for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Who has it? And what will it take to get it back? Spade's solution is as complicated as the motives of the seekers assembled in his hotel room, but the truth can be a cold comfort indeed.

Spade is bigger (and blonder) in the book than in the movie, and his Mephistophelean countenance is by turns seductive and volcanic. Sam knows how to fight, whom to call, how to rifle drawers and secrets without leaving a trace, and just the right way to call a woman "Angel" and convince her that she is. He is the quintessence of intelligent cool, with a wise guy's perfect pitch. If you only know the movie, read the book. If you're riveted by Chinatown or wonder where Robert B. Parker's Spenser gets his comebacks, read the master. --Barbara Schlieper



Reader Reviews
Disappointing, September 11, 2003 Reviewer: roonetta from Bristol United Kingdom I am sorry but I am going to have to disagree with almost everyone who has written a review for The Maltese Falcon. Whether it is because I am used to reading Crais and Lehane and found a real shortage of action in this book, or whether it was because the characters were so unbelievable (if Gutman had said "By Gad sir" any more, I may have had to slit my wrists!) I know this book is 70 years or more old, but I just didn't find the conversations realistic. Anyway, I am sure my review won't put people off once they read everyone else's five star reviews, but just a word of warning, if you are used to people like Elvis Cole, you will just be disappointed by Sam Spade.