The Maltese Falcon is the definitive masterpiece of the hard-boiled detective genre. It introduces legendary PI Sam Spade, a loner who follows his own code and the rules of the street as he zeros in on his partner's killer and the famous jewel-encrusted bird. Humphrey Bogart immortalized the tough-guy detective in the classic 1941 film.
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) spent his early twenties working as a detective in San Francisco. He began writing fiction after serving in WWI, and had his first success in the popular crime magazine, Black Mask. He went on to write five novels, including Red Harvest (1928), The Maltese Falcon (1930), and The Thin Man (1934).
