Tuesday, May 11, 2021

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett


I enjoy reading mystery novels and I also enjoy reading classics for the most part. I've been wanting to read The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett for a few years now and lucky me, it falls into the hard-boiled mystery genre and is a classic novel too.

I listened to the unabridged audio version of the The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and narrated by William Dufris. Too be very honest, I was disappointed with The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. I didn't care much for the story, the characters, or the writing. I'm glad I finally got around to listening to this novel, but would not recommend it. I won't bother reading another novel by Dashiell Hammett in the future.

As far as narrators go, William Dufris wasn't the greatest. He was a bit over the top in performing the various voices for each character.

Listening time for The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is 7 hours, 5 minutes. 

Below is a the plot summary for The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett from Audible:
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade is hired to locate a client's sister by tailing the sister's companion. Spade's partner Miles Archer takes on the assignment, and quickly both Archer and the man he was shadowing are murdered. As Spade pursues the mystery of his partner's death, he is drawn into a circle of colorful characters, and they are all after a legendary statuette of a falcon that had long ago been made for King Charles of Spain. Encrusted with jewels, it is worth a fortune. Missing for centuries, it resurfaced in 1921, when it was covered in black enamel to disguise its true value.

The Maltese Falcon is the definitive masterpiece of the hard-boiled detective genre. Humphrey Bogart immortalized tough-guy Sam Spade in the classic 1941 film.

I am giving The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett a rating of 2 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!
 

2 comments:

  1. I read this novel long, long ago but I remember the book less than the Humphrey Bogart film which was a corker!

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    1. Believe it or not, I haven't seen the movie version!

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