"The Maltese Falcon" was Dashiell Hammett's third novel - after the Continental Op books "The Dain Curse" and "Red Harvest" - and was the first story to introduce the iconoclastic private detective Sam Spade.

When his partner is killed on what appeared to be a routine case, Sam Spade is drawn into a mystery that stretches back hundreds of years and involves a priceless, jewel-encrusted statue of a bird from antiquity that has been hunted by treasure seekers since the 16th century. Filled with action, double-crosses, murder and mayhem, "The Maltese Falcon" is the quintessential "hard-boiled" detective novel and catapulted Dashiell Hammett into the pantheon of mystery writers.

Later adapted into one of the greatest film noir movies of all time, "The Maltese Falcon" is regularly listed at or near the top of the greatest detective novels ever written.