The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, narrated by William Dufris | 2004, originally published 1930 | Blackstone Audio | Audiobook $29
Tough, cynical PI Sam Spade — a man who, as his creator explained, is “able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with” — is hired by the story’s irresistible femme fatale, Brigid O’Shaughnessy, to locate the client’s sister by tailing her companion. Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, takes on the assignment, and quickly both he and the man he was shadowing are murdered. As Spade pursues the mystery of his partner’s death, he is drawn into a circle of colorful characters — all of them after a legendary statuette of a falcon fashioned long ago for King Charles of Spain. Made of gold and encrusted with jewels, the falcon is worth a fortune. Missing for centuries, it resurfaced in Paris in 1911, covered in black enamel to disguise its value, and then disappeared again until it was traced to Constantinople — and now, it would seem, to Spade’s own backyard.
This book is a classic of the mystery genre and the source material for the celebrated film noir of the same title, which is why it ended up on my challenge list for Classics Club. Detective stories do not usually end up on my reading list, but I thought this one would be worth a try.
It’s a fast-paced tale of a crime and deceit and intriguingly rotten characters. “Gritty” is a good descriptor for this story. Of course, there is quite a lot of old-fashioned stereotyping here; there’s a lot of emphasis on people being fat, female, foreign, and so on. Seems hardly worth mentioning, given the time period and the purposeful troublesomeness of the characters. But I do mention it because if not for that and the outdated phraseology and the lack of contemporary tech, I wouldn’t have pinned it as being almost a century old; the story in and of itself does not feel overly dated, if that makes sense.
The narrator did a rather nice job with this audiobook, particularly with the dialogue. In fact, this particular audio adaptation has won awards. I’m really glad I chose to listen to the story rather than read a print copy, because despite the energetic narration and the fast pace of the story I sometimes found my attention wandering and I don’t know if I’d’ve been motivated to finish the book otherwise. I confess that I still prefer the silver screen version performed by Humphrey Bogart.
Links:
- Dashiell Hammett feature for PBS American Masters
- “The Mystery of the Maltese Falcon” article in Vanity Fair
- “Dashiell Hammett’s Strange Career” article in The Paris Review
- The Dashiell Hammett Family Papers collection at the University of South Carolina
Publication information: Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese falcon. USA: Blackstone Audio, 2012. Audiobook.
Source: Public library, via Hoopla.
Disclaimer: I am not compensated, monetarily or otherwise, for reviews of books or other products.
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