30 Before 30: The Maltese Falcon

Do not be surprised if, upon opening The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, you begin to smell the pungent odor of cigarette smoke, fog begins rolling into your room, and everyone begins calling you "gorgeous" or "doll." This book seems to have been specially created for reproduction in film noir. A beautiful redhead steps into the smoke-filled San Francisco detective office of Sam Spade begging for his help...and so the story goes.

I chose this book as one of my "3 books from Top 100 list" tasks because I already owned it and I love a good detective story. It got onto my list by making the lists of Modern Library 100 Best Novels - The Board's List, Radcliffe's Rival 100 Best Novels List, and Newsweek Top 100 Books - The Meta-List. So now you know half the places from which I have created my own list. Welcome to the inner sanctum!

The Maltese Falcon was a quick read with a rather straightforward writing style and plot line. At times the characters became slightly confusing because of the double-crosses and shifting "true" stories, but I never was lost while reading for longer than a couple paragraphs. I had already seen the movie, which helped create the scene and tone of the book (hence the smoke and fog), but the book does a fantastic job of conveying the mood of a moment through the dialog and descriptions of the people and scene. Sam Spade can go from being a heartthrob to a cad with a swift change of face or a harsh word.

Aside from owning the book and seeing the movie, there was another ulterior motive. Mythbusters. Or, to be more specific, Adam Savage's obsession with The Maltese Falcon. Click the link and watch the video - it is about 17 minutes long, but well-worth it. It is more an exploration of where curiosity can lead with a little mystery and crime of its own thrown in.

So, I am two books down and one to go to complete my goal of three books from my list by September. There are a couple of books I own that are also on my list, so I have a few to choose from. Since I have no idea which one I will choose, I cannot even leave you with a cliffhanger ending, which would have fit this post on The Maltese Falcon well. Hmm...whatever book it will be, it is bound to be mysterious...