Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon

Here we go. Book number two in my 25 crime-fiction classic list! After finishing this, I probably should’ve started with this one but honestly, who’s going to blame me for reading a Raymond Chandler novel first?

Sam Spade and Miles Archer, private eye’s residing in San Fransisco, are hired by a woman to procure the safe return of her little sister after she has run off with another man. While Spade accepts the job, he doesn’t completely buy Ms. Wonderly’s story feeling that there is more to what she’s telling them. What turns out to be the understatement to end all understatement’s, Spade becomes entangled in a search for a rare, valuable statue that puts his life in danger and his reputation with the law on the line.

I was originally hesitant about starting this noir/hard boiled/crime fiction journey because I was under the impression that these books were going to suffer from such massive over-hype that I would feel RIDICULOUS for not liking them.

This book was just tremendous. Really, just all around greatness from start to finish. It blows my mind that there had not been many books around at the time written in this style or with characters like these. It must have had people reeling when they finished it, scrambling for more!

Like Chandler’s The Big Sleep, this book is endlessly quotable. I’m such a fan of great similes and snappy, witty dialogue and this book is just stuffed to the breaking point with memorable lines.

If it hadn’t been so damn entertaining, I may have taken a little bit of an issue that Spade never really seems to be in any danger. Despite the fact that these criminals have the upper hand on a few occasions, they come across as buffoons with no real plans of their own.

That being said, it’s hard to really find fault in something so excellent.

On a side note, something tells me that if I slap someone and they get angry, I wouldn’t be able to tell them they’ll take it AND like it. It works for Spade because he’s clearly so damn slick but I doubt I have the ability to pull that one off.