The Maltese Falcon

Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett's archetypally tough San Francisco detective, is more noir than L.A. Confidential & more vulnerable than Raymond Chandler's Marlowe. In The Maltese Falcon, the best known of Hammett's Sam Spade novels (including The Dain Curse & The Glass Key), Spade is tough enough to bluff the toughest thugs & 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 & disappears. Grotesque villains demand a payoff he can't provide. & everyone wants a fabulously valuable gold statuette of a falcon, created as tribute for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Who has it? 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 truth can be a cold comfort.