“[Hammett] did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.” —Raymond Chandler “Dashiell Hammett’s crime thriller and its hard-boiled hero Sam Spade influenced everyone from Chandler to Le Carré.” —The Guardian When his partner is gunned down on a routine stakeout, private detective Sam Spade is drawn into a ruthless contest for a small black statuette known only as the Maltese Falcon. The object is rumored to be priceless, and those who seek it—among them the alluring Brigid O’Shaughnessy, the fastidious Joel Cairo, and the corpulent “Fat Man,” Casper Gutman—will lie, steal, and kill to make it their own. In this landmark 1930 novel, Dashiell Hammett strips crime fiction to its hard, bright essentials, creating the coolly self-possessed Sam Spade, a detective whose code is as unforgiving as the city streets he walks. As corpses accumulate and stories shift, Spade must decide where justice ends and self-preservation begins, testing the limits of loyalty, desire, and the very idea of truth. This Warbler Classics edition includes a new introduction by Malcolm Jones. DASHIELL HAMMETT (1894–1961) was a pioneering American writer who created the hard-boiled school of detective fiction, introducing characters like Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles. Drawing on his experience as a Pinkerton detective, Hammett’s novels such as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man set new standards for realism and style in crime literature. His works had a lasting impact on both literature and film, especially in shaping the film noir genre. MALCOLM JONES is the author of the memoir Little Boy Blues and a former editor and writer for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, where he covered books, music, and photography. "[Hammett] did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before." -Raymond Chandler "Dashiell Hammett's crime thriller and its hard-boiled hero Sam Spade influenced everyone from Chandler to Le Carré." - The Guardian Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was a pioneering American writer who created the hard-boiled school of detective fiction, introducing characters like Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles. Drawing on his experience as a Pinkerton detective, Hammett's novels such as The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man set new standards for realism and style in crime literature. His works had a lasting impact on both literature and film, especially in shaping the film noir genre. Malcolm Jones is the author of the memoir Little Boy Blues and a former editor and writer for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, where he covered books, music, and photography.