Sam Spade Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional private detective and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel, "The Maltese Falcon". Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. "The Maltese Falcon", first published as a serial in the pulp magazine "Black Mask", is the only full-length novel in which Spade appears. The character, however, is widely cited as a crystallizing figure in the development of hard-boiled private detective fiction—Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, for instance, was strongly influenced by Spade. Spade was a departure from Hammett's nameless and less-than-glamorous detective, The Continental Op. Spade combined several features of previous
The Falcon (character) "Adventures of the Falcon" (1954-55). The Falcon (character) "Drexel Drake" (a pseudonym of Charles H. Huff) created Michael Waring, alias the Falcon, a free-lance investigator and troubleshooter, in his 1936 novel, "The Falcon's Prey". It was followed by two more novels ("The Falcon Cuts In", 1937 and "The Falcon Meets a Lady", 1938) and a 1938 short story. Gay Stanhope Falcon is a fictional character created in 1940 by Michael Arlen. This Falcon made his first appearance in Arlen's short story "Gay Falcon", which was first published in 1940 in "Town & Country" magazine. Falcon is characterized as a freelance