Detective Sam Spade is a lone wolf with an ambiguous moral compass. When his partner gets killed during a tense stakeout, he's plunged headfirst into an entangled web of deceit, greed, and murder involving an extraordinary treasure with a shady backstory—the Maltese Falcon, a priceless bejeweled bird. Dashiell Hammett transformed American detective stories into hard-boiled fiction, blurring the lines between hero and villain with the typical tough guy archetype. Fans of the noir world will enjoy this affordable addition to Dover Thrifts.