The Maltese Falcon - Hardcover

The Maltese Falcon is the archetypal 'hardboiled' detective story, rich in exotic characters, dark exciting action and featuring of the greatest of all cool tough private eyes, Sam Spade. Written in 1930, the novel has a timeless quality that makes it fresh and exciting for each new generation of readers. Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with ne-er do well Floyd Thursby. But when Spade's partner Miles Archer is murdered while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the mythical jewel-encrusted Falcon, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man and how far can he trust the sexy Miss Wonderley? Dashiel Hammett's noir classic is written in sharp terse prose that gives a cinematic vividness to the characters and the milieu.

Samuel Dashiel Hammett was born on a farm in Maryland in 1896. He left school when he was 13 years old and held several jobs before working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He was an operative for the Pinkertons from 1915 to February 1922, with time off to serve in World War I. When his first marriage failed, Hammett turned to alcohol before working in advertising and, eventually, writing. His work at the detective agency provided him the inspiration for his writings. Hammett wrote most of his detective fiction during the 1920s when he was living in San Francisco. In 1931 Hammett embarked on a 30-year affair with playwright Lillian Hellman. He wrote his final novel The Thin Man in 1934. Despite it being his most successful work to date, he gave up writing and devoted much of the rest of his life to left-wing activism. He was black-listed as a Communist in the 1950s and he gradually withdrew from public life, the effects of tobacco and alcohol having a detrimental effect on his health. He died of lung cancer in 1961.