1001 Books for Every Mood - Readers Guide

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Private investigator Sam Spade is out to avenge the de ath of his partner, Miles Archer. Sinister Joe Cairo offers Spade $500 to retrieve a black figurine. Beautiful Brigid O’Shaughnessy throws herself at Spade (“I want you to save me—from it all.”) Turns out she wants the statue, too. But tough, ruthless, single-minded Spade is immune to her feminine wiles. Hammett wrote only this one novel featuring Spade, but with it he created the mold for the hardboiled private investigator who follows his own moral compass.

-- 1001 Books for Every Mood

Readers Guide by Hallie Ephron

Overview

First published in Valentine’s Day in 1930, this was Hammett’s third novel (he wrote four). Protagonist Sam Spade defined what would become literature’s iconic American private eye.

The book opens in what has become classic PI-novel style with our detective in his office, his trusty girl Friday telling him there’s a girl who wants to see him. In slinks the tall, slender, soft-spoken “Miss Wonderly” (aka Brigid Shaughnessey). A femme fatale with cobalt eyes, Brigid pleads with Spade to find her sister whom she says ran away from New York with an older man, Floyd Thursby. Spade’s partner and friend, Miles Archer, agree to stake out Thursby at his hotel, in hopes of finding the sister and getting her away from him.

When Archer is found shot dead, Spade is determined to find his killer. Soon he discovers that Brigid has been lying to him about her real motives. There is no sister, and Brigid confesses that she wants to recover the Maltese Falcon, an invaluable and centuries old, gem-encrusted statue that she and Thursby stole.

Spade finds himself literally in a den of thieves, trying to stay alive and find his friend’s killer..

Discussion Questions

1. When Sam Spade first appears in the novel, Hammett describes him as a “blond satan.” Why do you think he uses this particular image, and does it turn out to be appropriate?

2. When “Miss Wonderly” asks Spade to find her younger sister, do you think he is taken in by her story? Why does he take the case initially. Later, why does he try to find the falcon?

3. Spade has been described as a character who follows his own moral compass. In what ways does he do this?

4. Do you think Spade would rather outshoot or outthink the bad guys—support your answer with an example from the book.

5. How does the Flitcraft parable illustrate Spade’s moral philosophy? Why do you think Hammett included it in the book?

6. There are three women characters in this novel. Brigid O’Shaughnessey, Effie Perrine, and Iva Archer. How does each of these characters represent a clichéd female character, and how are they original?

7. One critic pointed out: “although Spade is no murderer, Brigid is the victim.” Do you agree or disagree? Who do you think is the victim in this book?

8. This book is renowned for its third-person “objective” point of view—it’s written as if the narrator is a purely objective observer, standing just outside Sam Spade and looking on (we never hear his internal monologue, we only see evidence of his emotions from his actions…for instance, after Archer’s death, his feelings remain hidden and all the reader sees is his precise rolling of a cigarette). See if you can find other examples of this. Do you find it effective?

9. Spare, raw, and understated, Hammett’s writing is often compared to Hemingway. Do you agree or disagree?

10. This mystery has been termed a classic of the “hard-boiled” style. When great Raymond Chandler said, “Hammett took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley,” he was comparing Hammett’s work to British puzzle murder mysteries featuring upper class characters and a corpse. In what ways do you think the book is or isn’t “hard-boiled”?

About the Author

Before turning to writing, Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) worked both in advertising and as a detective for Pinkerton's National Detective Agency. Some elements of the novel may be losely based on a case to which he was assigned, the Sonoma Gold Specie case, in which stolen gold coins were hidden on a ship.

He published only five novels--The Maltese Falcon was his third--and more than eighty short stories. In addition to Sam Spade, Hammett created the enduring characters of Nick and Nora Charles in his final, slim volume, The Thin Man.

The New York Herald Tribune columnist John Crosby wrote, just after Hammett’s death in 1961:

“Dashiell Hammett, who died the other day, was that rare thing—a shaker of the earth, an authentic. “The Maltese Falcon” was one of the best books of its kind ever written. It struck the publishing world and reading world—which is something entirely distinct from the literary world—like a thunderclap. Nothing has been the same since.

“Realism. Vigor. Vitality. Callousness. Immorality. Amorality. Muscular. Hard-boiled. They were all words applied to Hammett at various times. But authentic fits him better.”

If You Liked This...

Here are some books to try next.

Also by Dashiell Hammett--

The Thin Man

Books with similar themes or context--

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
The Chill by Ross MacDonald
L. A. Confidential by James Ellroy

And for something much lighter with a chess set of Maltese Falcons to chase down:

What's So Funny by Donald Westlake

About Hallie Ephron

Hallie Ephron is an award-winning book reviewer and the author of 1001 Books for Every Mood. She lives near Boston.