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 Way Some People Die alarming rate, a handsome part-time actor found dead in his apartment, a newlywed husband on the lam, a boat piled on the rocks, fast-talking women, everybody with a handout or hidden agenda. This book introduces the second of two cities Ross invented and was to use commonly in his work, Pacific Point, located south of Los Angeles. Anthony Boucher described it as: "The best novel in the tough tradition I've read since "Farewell, My Lovely" and possibly since "The Maltese Falcon"." Dick Lochte wrote: "I'm not sure why I prefer "The Way Some People Die" to" The Moving Target'", the