"The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett

217 pages

The mysterious, alluring woman who can't necessarily be trusted. The search for an exotic, expensive item that people will kill for, literally. The detective who has strong morals but will bend the law to find the truth. All of these familiar elements of hardboiled detective novels began in 1930 with "The Maltese Falcon," which is the Big Read selection for 2012.

The story begins with detective Sam Spade and his partner, Miles Archer, receiving a visit from an attractive young woman who calls herself Miss Wonderly. She asks the detectives to follow her sister's new husband, whom she believes to be dangerous. This leads to a murder, and Spade discovers that Miss Wonderly is not who she says she is. Her name is actually Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and she's involved in the hunt for a legendary jewel-encrusted falcon statue that is said to have been a gift from the island of Malta to the King of Spain several hundred years ago, but was lost on ship in transit and has been searched for ever since. Spade soon finds himself tangled up with the network of treasure seekers who will stop at nothing to find the falcon.

I really got sucked into this book! The action begins right away and is nonstop until the end. The author tells a lot of the story and develops the characters by using details to create a mental picture, and all of the details are relevant. There aren't any insignificant descriptions cluttering things up. Hammett's storytelling made the story come alive for me, and there are lots of twists in the plot that kept me interested. I'll definitely be checking out some of his other novels and short stories.