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Summary: Blond Satan, Can I Get Your Number?
Review: Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade is a blonde satan with his own moral code which he upholds come hell or high water. Read it as a mystery, read it as 'a man who knew what it meant to be a man's ethics' and either way it'll hook you in and you won't be able to stop until you've finished. Over the years I've read this novel several times, each time gleaning something new from it. Although any mystery will lose its appeal in the respect of 'whodunnit' after you know the ending, the story about Flitcraft and the falling beam, Spade's theory of the fall guy and the priceless one-liners are worth the price of admission or readmission as the case may be.
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Summary: Vintage Crime
Review: Mysteries, they either knock your sox off or they fail more miserably than most other kinds of novels, due to that ever important element of surprise. With that said it's always nice to read those novels that influence all the others. The one's that create that formula used so often. This particular story line grasps you from the start because it doesn't reveal itself immediately like so many books in this genre do. The style is rugged and sharp, like a good tough guy novel should be. You can make a list of copycats that came from this book that probably would fill more pages than the book itself. However knowing that this is one of the true originals, heightens all of those familiar features and lets you recognize why they works so well. Although Sam Spade, the main character, is described differently, you just can't help but to insert Bogart into your mind to fill the lead role. The quick come backs, the dry sarcasm, you gotta love that old time dialogue. This stuff reads like a tale your good 'ol grandfather might tell you. I felt like I was there, walking around with a derby hat on, swinging a cane while humming big band music to myself. Its also fun to read this caper because the monetary terms at stake are so small compared to today's standard. Sam Spade sticks his neck out several times for something like ten thousand dollars! A classic caper, plenty of twists, a tough guy always getting in trouble, and an unexpected (finally) ending. Now that's the way it should be. It is easy to see why Hammett is regarded as one of the best crime novelists of all time. This could quite possibly be the perfect mystery novel. A must read for crime/mystery fans, fans of classics, fans of words, hell if you have a favorite vowel you should look for it in this treasure.
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Summary: Sheer Perfection
Review: One of the best mystery novels ever, and one of the best American novels ever. It doesn't get better than this. The characters are fascinating, the story is exciting, and the novel actually winds up being more than an interesting puzzle.For the reviewer below whose complaints about the novel center around her dislike of "cuss words", my advice is this -- just stop reading altogether. If your delicate sensibilities are offended by Dashiell Hammett, what on Earth are you doing reading adult fiction at all?
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Summary: The King of Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction
Review: The Maltese Falcon is one of the most well-recognized movies of the "film noir" age, helping to firmly establish the careers of young director John Huston and leading man Humphrey Bogart. This masterpiece novel, upon which the film is very accurately based, may be the greatest novel of its genre. Hammett writes in a style that almost feels like a screenplay, with the reader vividly re-enacting each scene in her mind as you race along with the plot, encountering such classic characters as the skeptical, hard-boiled detective Sam Spade, effeminate double-crosser Joel Cairo, and the bungling, sneering first-time hit man Wilmer. The dialogue sparkles, the suspense builds to a satisfying climax, and upon finishing the novel you understand why Huston was so taken with the novel that he chose to remain almost entirely faithful to the dialogue and plot when he made the movie. Modern crime/detective writers like Crais, Parker and Leonard owe a great debt to Dashiell Hammett, he is truly the father of the genre. If you have only enjoyed the movie, or even if you barely remember it, pick up this book, cancel your early morning appointments, and enjoy a real classic page-turner.
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Summary: One of My Favourite Books
Review: I want to recommend this book to everyone because it is one of my favourites which I've read several times. I also want to recommend a new book which parodies 'The Maltese Falcon' among many other targets. This new book is called 'Rastus Reilly' and is must reading for anyone who loves funny things and for all fans of Dashiell Hammett's most famous and most enjoyable novel. I also recently read 'Nightmare Town' and thought it was good but not the best thing by Mr Hammett that I have read.
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Summary: The best detective story I ever read
Review: The Maltese Falcon is the best detective novel I have ever read. I had seen the movie before I read the book and I must say that this is one of those rare cases where the book is more exciting. Usually if you see the movie first you picture those actors while you are reading, but Dashiell Hammett does such a wonderful job with his description, you can't help but develop a whole new cast in you mind. With nifty phrases like "limp freshness" or "a weary grimace" Hammett vividly portrays every scene without any clutter, making for a fast-paced and exhilarating novel. I rarely had to take the time to re-read sentences unlike many other books that leave you reading the same page three times with their wordiness and deadwood. The originality of the subcharacters is also a high point of the novel. Although Sam Spade is practically a stock character for the books and films of the time period, the other characters in the book are fascinating and undoubtadly original. Joel Cairo, the Levantine, and Wilmer, the rookie hitman, were the two characters I simply could not get enough of while I was reading The Maltese Falcon. Finally, the last reason why I consider this the best detective novel of all time is that it stands the test of time. Originally published in 1930, the book makes as much sense today as it must have seventy years ago. As I read, I pictured the story happening today proving that The Maltese Falcon is a timelss classic. I would recommend this book to any reader out there prepared to stay up into the long hours of the night because they can't get enought of The Maltese Falcon, the best detective novel ever written.
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Summary: The epitome of mysteries
Review: When one thinks of a mystery, one should think of this book. Sam Spade, the archetype tough guy with street smarts, tries to solve the mysterious death of his partner, finds out the truth behind the constant lies of a beautiful woman, deals with the police breathing down his neck, and deals with some vile criminals. This book grabs you with intrigue and one plot twist after another. New characters, new leads and new ideas are all constantly introduced. Is the innocent looking girl the most evil of them all, or was it the cheating wife? Could the main character himself be a murderer? What was the mysterious package? Questions that lead to riddles that lead to more questions. It's hard not to get caught up in this book. Though the book doesn't really delve deep into any character, and the fluidity of his writing may cause you to re-read a paragraph or two, this book is a short, solid, mystery that should definitely be read.
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Summary: One of the five best mystery novels of the last century
Review: Written at the height of Dashiell Hammett's productivity and powers, THE MALTESE FALCON is one of the most revered detective novels of all time. It is not only a story about the quest for the black bird but also a tale about a remarkable man who has the courage to play the game by his own rules. The book is by far Hammett's best effort and its reputation is aided greatly by the Bogart movie with its superb supporting cast of Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook,Jr., Ward Bond, Lee Patrick, Barton MacLaine, Gladys George and Walter Huston.
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Summary: seminal private eye tale
Review: In a typical half-way step, the critics were honest enough to put it on the Modern Library list, but probably hesitant to put a pulp fiction too high. I believe it is very nearly perfect, and may well belong in the Top 10. The Private Eye (like the Old West gunslinger before him) is a quintessential American hero. A lone man, bound by an incorruptible personal code of morals, who gets drawn into tangled situations where only he can restore order. As the archetypal P.I. novel then, The Maltese Falcon owns a special place in American Literature. One interesting sidelight to the novel is to compare the final confrontation between Sam Spade & Brigid O'Shaughnessy to Hammett's own showdown with HUAC in the 1950's. Spade refuses to "play the sap", why did Hammett decide to be a sap for the Communists and his despicable lover, Lillian Hellman? GRADE: A+
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Summary: Roll yourself another cigarette, Sam.
Review: In "The Maltese Falcon," Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer operate a detective agency in San Francisco circa 1930. Spade, the archetypal private eye, keeps liquor in his desk drawer and rolls his own cigarettes. Frequently. Unlike Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels, the action is written in third person, but the focus remains on Spade. A young woman calling herself Miss Wonderly, flashing a lot of cash, hires Spade and Archer to follow a man she suspects is hiding her missing sister. That night, Archer and the man are shot dead in different places and within minutes of each other. The cops suspect Spade as Archer's killer and are breathing down Spade's neck, and it doesn't help his case that he's been having an affair with Archer's clingy, melodramatic widow. Meanwhile, Spade is engaged by a gaudily dressed fop named Joel Cairo and a globular glutton named Gutman to locate a specific statuette of a black bird with an ancient history. The so-called "Maltese Falcon" is or has been under the guardianship of a coolly devious vixen named Brigid O'Shaughnessy, who becomes Spade's romantic foil. The villains are painted in strokes so broad I can feel the dye bleeding off the pages into my fingers. Spade's detective work is acute but the plot doesn't allow much payoff from it; eventually the falcon almost literally falls into his lap. I also found the last couple of chapters anticlimactic and not very exciting, with too much parleying between the hero and the villains. There is one good plot revelation at the end, though, which almost makes it all worthwhile. While I prefer the rapid-fire dialogue, labyrinthine plots, and subtle characterization of Chandler's Marlowe novels (admittedly conceived well after and undeniably influenced by Spade), "The Maltese Falcon" gives a fine glimpse of the mystery novel breaking English barriers and drifting to American shores.
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