The Maltese Falcon (novel) The Maltese Falcon (novel) The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 detective novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine "Black Mask" beginning with the September 1929 issue. The story is told entirely in external third-person narrative; there is no description whatever of any character's internal thoughts or feelings, only what they say and do, and how they look. The novel has been adapted several times for the cinema. The main character, Sam Spade (who also appeared later in some lesser-known short stories), was a departure from Hammett's nameless detective, The Continental Op. Spade combined several features of
The Maltese Falcon (novel) this, but pleads that she is in love with Spade. Maybe he does care for her, Spade admits, but "I won't play the sap for you" – for personal as well as professional reasons. If she can get off with a long prison term, he'll wait for her; but if she hangs, so be it. When the police arrive, he turns her in and the police tell him Wilmer has just shot Gutman dead. Although Hammett himself worked for a time as a private detective for the Pinkerton Detective Agency in San Francisco (and used his given name, Samuel, for