The District Attorney ties the shootings to Dixie Monahan, a Chicago gambler who had employed Thursby as a bodyguard in the Far East.Īt a second meeting, Gutman tells Spade the history of the tribute of the Maltese Falcon. The police suspect Spade in the shootings: he was bedding Archer's wife, Iva. Spade implies he is looking out for himself, not O'Shaughnessy. When Spade meets Gutman in his hotel room, neither will tell what he knows. Effie agrees to hide her at her own home, but O'Shaughnessy disappears again.

Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in the 1941 film adaptationĮffie believes O'Shaughnessy 'is all right' and Spade should help her. Leaving her there, Spade slips out to search her apartment. The next morning, she is asleep in his bed. They meet with Cairo at Spade's apartment, and Spade again presses O'Shaughnessy for details again she stalls but kisses Spade. O'Shaughnessy begs for Spade's protection while telling him as little as possible. Others are after this falcon, including Joel Cairo, an effeminate Levantine homosexual, and Casper Gutman, a fat man accompanied by a vicious young gunman, Wilmer Cook. 'Miss Wonderley' is soon revealed to be an acquisitive adventuress named Brigid O'Shaughnessy, who is involved in the search for a black statuette of unknown but substantial value. The next morning, Spade coolly tells his office secretary, Effie Perine, to have the office door repainted to read simply 'Samuel Spade'.

Thursby is also killed later and Spade is a suspect. Archer takes the first stint but is found shot dead that night.

The beautiful 'Miss Wonderley' hires them to follow Floyd Thursby, who she claims has run off with her sister. Sam Spade is a private detective in San Francisco, in partnership with Miles Archer. Five years later, in a similar list by Mystery Writers of America, the novel was ranked third. In 1990 the novel ranked 10th in Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list by the Crime Writers' Association. Spade combined several features of previous detectives, notably his cold detachment, keen eye for detail, unflinching and sometimes ruthless determination to achieve his own form of justice, and a complete lack of sentimentality. The main character, Sam Spade (who also appeared later in some lesser-known short stories), was a departure from Hammett's nameless detective, The Continental Op. The novel has been adapted several times for the cinema. The story is told entirely in external third-person narrative there is no description whatsoever of any character's thoughts or feelings, only what they say and do, and how they look. The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 detective novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine Black Mask beginning with the September 1929 issue.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett