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The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett revolves around the adventures of Sam Spade, a tough private detective caught in a complex web of deceit. After Spade meets the femme fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy, he enters a treacherous world in which his partner is murdered, the police track the wrong man, artifact-hunters seek a priceless statue and nothing is what it seems. Even the strong and independent Spade struggles to keep his head through the mystery’s ever-increasing twists and turns.
Written in 1930, The Maltese Falcon stands as one of the best examples of classic noir fiction. With Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett creates the influential hard-boiled detective who presents a hardened, cynical front to a corrupt society while he maintains a genuine, if tarnished, personal code. Spade has a rugged masculinity, cold objectivity, keen eye and quick fist. Spade’s tough-guy characteristics, however, become muddled around the beautiful, crafty Brigid O'Shaughnessy, who uses everyone to further her own devices. The Maltese Falcon immerses the reader in the race to find the solution to the mystery—and the missing statue—while it hints that this solution will not make Spade’s world any easier to understand or accept. As the NEA Reader’s Guide puts it: “Among many other things, The Maltese Falcon is about what it's like to want something—a fortune, a lover, or even respect—so badly that you would kill for it, give up a chance at happiness to get it, until finally the chase itself means more to you than what you're chasing.” |
Further Reading and Viewing
Other Detective Stories
Cain, James M. The Postman Always Rings Twice: Explores the tumultuous affair between Frank and Cora as they plan to murder Cora’s husband.
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep: Its main character Philip Marlowe, together with Sam Spade, set the precedent for the hardboiled private detective.
Charteris, Leslie. The Saint novels: The debonair Simon Templar a.k.a. the Saint moves inside and outside the law as he fights for justice in this long-running series.
Christie, Agatha. Murder on the Orient Express: The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot must use his “little gray cells” to unravel the circumstances behind this murder on a train.
Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White: Two amateur sleuths must solve the mystery of a woman who was wrongfully imprisoned in a lunatic asylum.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles: Features the most famous detective in English literature and his remarkable powers of deduction.
Hammett, Dashiell. The Thin Man: A married pair of socialites moonlight as detectives and solve crimes in between cocktails.
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley: Thomas Ripley falls under the spell of a first-class life and decides to do anything necessary to obtain it for himself.
Kazuo Ishiguro. When We Were Orphans: Revises the classic detective story and asks if a troubled, human mind can ever solve long-past crimes.
Keene, Carolyn. The Secret of the Old Clock: The first of many exciting stories featuring teenage sleuth Nancy Drew.
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”: Has been cited as the first detective story that set the precedent for Holmes and Poirot.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Whose Body?: Introduces the aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.
Film Noir
The Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Ossessione (1943)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Laura (1944)
Notorious (1946)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
The Third Man (1949)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Chinatown (1974)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Brick (2005)
