The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, first published in 1930, is one of the greatest crime novels of all times, inspiring numerous spinoffs in film, television, and theater. The hero, Sam Spade, is a hard-bitten and ethically ambiguous detective who is approached by the beautiful and mysterious Miss Wonderly to track down her missing sister. Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, steps in, only to be shot that very night. Spade’s honor as a detective requires him to track down Archer’s killer. Spade’s journey takes him through San Francisco of the 1920s—dark, foggy, and sinister, in one of the city’s many moods. Spade knows that Miss Wonderly is not who she claims to be. Unraveling this mystery, he encounters Joel Cairo, an effeminate Greek antiquities dealer; Casper Gutman, a fat man in search of a priceless figurine of a black falcon; and Wilmer, a brutal young gunslinger. The Maltese Falcon has captured the public imagination through the famous 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart. But the