The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett · 1930 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Modernist

A San Francisco private detective takes a routine tailing job from a woman with an obvious lie in her story, and by morning both his partner and the man they were following are dead. What surfaces is a scatter of rival claimants to a jewelled statuette that has changed hands by theft for four centuries. Hammett's last completed novel set the terms of hardboiled prose, narrated flat from outside a character's head.

Open The Maltese Falcon in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Lineage

• ↓ The Maltese Falcon
  John Huston · 1941 CE · Film — adapts this

Attributes

Closest analogues

• The Maltese Falcon
  John Huston · 1941 CE · Film

  71% · 16 shared
  Crime / NoirMysteryBetrayalWealth & GreedAppearance vs RealityAnti-HeroFemme FataleMysteryGold / TreasureThe CityThe Maskvs Personvs SelfNoirIronicModern / American
• Witness for the Prosecution
  Billy Wilder · 1957 CE · Film

  61% · 14 shared
  Crime / NoirMysteryThrillerBetrayalAppearance vs RealityLoyaltyFemme FataleMysteryThe Maskvs Personvs SocietyNoirIronicModern / American
• The Big Sleep
  Howard Hawks · 1946 CE · Film

  59% · 14 shared
  Crime / NoirMysteryWealth & GreedAppearance vs RealityAnti-HeroFemme FataleVillain / TyrantMysteryThe Cityvs Personvs SocietyNoirIronicModern / American
• The Third Man
  Graham Greene · 1949 CE · Novel

  59% · 14 shared
  NovelCrime / NoirMysteryThrillerBetrayalAppearance vs RealityLoyaltyVillain / TyrantMysteryThe Cityvs Personvs SelfNoirIronic
• The Third Man
  Carol Reed · 1949 CE · Film

  59% · 13 shared
  Crime / NoirMysteryThrillerBetrayalAppearance vs RealityLoyaltyVillain / TyrantMysteryThe Cityvs Personvs SelfNoirIronic
• L.A. Confidential
  Curtis Hanson · 1997 CE · Film

  56% · 14 shared
  Crime / NoirMysteryAppearance vs RealityAnti-HeroFemme FataleVillain / TyrantMysteryThe CityThe Maskvs Personvs SocietyNoirIronicModern / American