A review by heathercottledillon
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

4.0

The mysterious, alluring woman who can't necessarily be trusted. The search for an exotic, expensive item that people will kill for, literally. The detective who has strong morals but will bend the law to find the truth. All of these familiar elements of hardboiled detective novels began in 1930 with "The Maltese Falcon," which is the Big Read selection for 2012.

I really got sucked into this book! The action begins right away and is nonstop until the end. The author tells a lot of the story and develops the characters by using details to create a mental picture, and all of the details are relevant. There aren't any insignificant descriptions cluttering things up. Hammett's storytelling made the story come alive for me, and there are lots of twists in the plot that kept me interested. I'll definitely be checking out some of his other novels and short stories.