Sam Spade and his partner Miles are private detectives in San Francisco. When the mysterious Miss Wonderly walks into their office begging them to trail a man who has run off with her sister, Sam finds himself embroiled in a complex web of violence, greed, and deceit, all revolving around a mysterious artifact—the titular Maltese Falcon.

The Maltese Falcon is a jewel in the crown of the “hardboiled” crime genre, and one of its best-known works. Hammett writes a tight and lean story in which no character, not even the hero or the police, can be said to be “good.”

It was first serialized in Black Mask magazine in 1929, before undergoing edits for publication as a novel in 1930. The novel was adapted into several movies, including the 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart, in which his portrayal of Sam Spade went on to become the core archetype for all film noir detectives to come.