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The Maltese Falcon

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The Maltese Falcon

Written by: Dashiell Hammett
Narrated by: William Dufris
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About this listen

 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.

©1956, 1957 Dashiell Hammett (P)2003 The Audio Partners Publishing Corp. Classics Crime Fiction Detective Fiction Hard-Boiled Mystery Noir Police Procedural Traditional Detectives Crime

What the critics say

"Dashiell Hammett...is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer." (The Boston Globe)
"The Maltese Falcon is not only probably the best detective story we have ever read, it is an exceedingly well written novel." (The Times Literary Supplement)
"Hammett's prose [is] clean and entirely unique. His characters [are] as sharply and economically defined as any in American fiction." (The New York Times)
"William Dufris is a one-man band, covering the entire cast of diverse characters with unbelievable ease....just short of amazing." (AudioFile)
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Most relevant
I don’t see what all the fuss is about but it’s ok. Maybe it has not aged well?

Meh

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Can't beat the source material. This telling of the story makes use of excellent narration. Kudos to Mr. Dufris. If you've seen the movie, it'll play in your head while you listen to this, and that's a good thing.

An excellent interpretation of a classic.

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The lead protagonist is one of the least enjoyable characters I have encountered in a long time. cam here to get a feel for some books that were popular in the 30s and... well. I guess this was one. The mystery had me hooked for a little bit, but where I assumed would be a great twist and pay-off, was the dumbest scene yet.

Great Delivery. Ludicrous characters.

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well written fast paced action packed story, narrator does a variety of voices, most of which add to the experience. would recommend

great story! a must listen

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One of the greats. Well done. It was an awesome performance as well. doesn't get any better.

Great book great performance

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