The Maltese Falcon

A San Francisco private detective, Sam Spade, takes on what seems a routine job and is soon caught up in a dangerous hunt for a priceless jeweled statuette. A client of uncertain honesty, a smooth foreign collector, a nervous small-time crook and a corpulent schemer all want the same prize, and each tells Spade a different story. Hammett keeps the viewpoint cool and external, so readers judge people only by what they say and do. The book is a landmark of hard-boiled fiction, admired for its dialogue, its tight plotting and its morally ambiguous hero.