A review by whimsicalmeerkat
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

2.0

I began reading [b:The Maltese Falcon|29999|The Maltese Falcon|Dashiell Hammett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1306421260s/29999.jpg|980184] with every expectation that I would enjoy it. I have heard so many comparisons of [a:Dashiell Hammett|16927|Dashiell Hammett|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1287255332p2/16927.jpg] to [a:Raymond Chandler|1377|Raymond Chandler|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206535318p2/1377.jpg] that anything else seemed impossible. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Try as hard as I can, I cannot see where the brilliance supposedly lies. All of the ingredients are there: beautiful, lying and tragic woman; hard-boiled detective; copious amounts of booze and coffee; evil men slapping the beautiful women in the face. (Seriously, what is up with all the slapping in noir?) Somehow, despite everything, it came off less compelling than a third-rate [a:Alistair MacLean|26970|Alistair MacLean|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1238207294p2/26970.jpg]. What's up with that?