A beautiful woman asks private eye Sam Spade for his help. Spade doesn't believe her story, and when his partner gets murdered it soon becomes clear that he's right. As he digs deeper, he realises everyone is chasing the enigmatic falcon and is willing to kill for it. He also realises there is no one he can trust—not the unctuous Fat Man, not the shrill Joel Cairo, not the suspicious police, and especially not the bewitching Brigid O'Shaughnessy. The Maltese Falcon—dry, uncluttered, witty and darkly unsentimental—is the finest book of its kind ever written.