David Eccles

The definitive masterpiece of the hard-boiled detective genre, The Maltese Falcon first appeared in the pages of Black Mask magazine in 1929 and was almost immediately acknowledged as not only a great crime novel but an enduring masterpiece of American fiction.Tough, cynical PI Sam Spade-a man who, as his creator explained, is "able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with"-is hired by the...