The character Sam Spade is now the subject of a brand new TV series, MONSIEUR SPADE, starring Clive Owen.

One of the greatest crime novels of the 20th century.

'His name remains one of the most important and recognisable in the crime fiction genre. Hammett set the standard for much of the work that would follow' Independent

Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and when Spade's partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?

One of the greatest crime novels of the 20th century.

About the Author
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was born in Maryland, left school at 14 and had several jobs - messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, timekeeper, yardman, machine operator and stevedore - until he became an operative for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. His experiences as a private detective laid the foundations for his writing career. His work includes The Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest, The Glass Key, The Thin Man and some eighty short stories, mostly published in Black Mask magazine.

Reviews
Dashiell Hammett's crime thriller and its hard-boiled hero Sam Spade influenced everyone from Chandler to Le Carre ... The Maltese Falcon is the Hammett novel that jumps from the pages of its genre and into literature * GUARDIAN *
His name remains one of the most important and recognisable in the crime fiction genre. Hammett set the standard for much of the work that would follow * INDEPENDENT *
One of the foremost practitioners of the hard-boiled detective story * THE SCOTSMAN *
The dean of the school of hard-boiled fiction * NEW YORK TIMES *
He put these people down on paper as they are, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used -- Raymond Chandler
He is master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer * BOSTON GLOBE *
The first fully "hard-boiled" hero in American letters * NEW YORKER *



Book Information
ISBN 9780752865331
Author Dashiell Hammett
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Publisher Orion Publishing Co
Weight(grams) 200g
Dimensions(mm) 133mm * 200mm * 17mm