Thoughts 
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Vintage Books, div of Random House 1992 (orig pub’d 1929), 217 pages
MOTIVATION for READING: for R.I.P. V! and for Book to Movie Challenge. And my husband also read The Maltese Falcon; he doesn’t read many books so we are both now looking forward to watching the flick.
FIRST SENTENCE: “Samuel Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth.”
WHAT’s it ABOUT: Our Sam Spade, Private Investigator, comes to work one day to find a beautiful woman in his office who wants to hire him. Trouble, trouble, trouble. He has to avoid getting arrested (and getting beat up – a lot) while trying to track down the source of the trouble, the lost artifact called The Maltese Falcon.
WHAT’s COOL: Mr. Hammett writes in an extremely descriptive style with lots and lots of colors. It really stands out how many times he mentions ‘her jade-colored dress’, ‘her green dress’, ‘the flash of emerald’, etc and then some. The pace of the action picks up as the story lines unfold – it’s a fun ride. The dialogue is quite good and I can see that this might have been quite easy to adapt to the big screen.
RATING: Four slices of pie.
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Thoughts 
Woman in the Dark by Dashiell Hammett, Thorndike Press Large Print 1990 (orig pub’d 1933) Introduction 1988 Robert B. Parker, 128 pages
MOTIVATION for READING: More Hammett! Found this at the Home for the Aged where I volunteer.
FIRST SENTENCE: ”Her right ankle turned under her and she fell.”
WHAT’s it ABOUT: Late one stormy night, a foreign woman escaping her husband? benefactor? sugar daddy? (It’s unclear) happens to knock on the door of a man recently out of prison. He agrees to help rescue her but it’s all just ‘trouble, trouble, trouble.’ It’s somewhat of a love story, believe it or not. (I’m not altogether sure about this, either.)
WHAT’s COOL: Parker’s Intro is a great segue from The Maltese Falcon to this short story. He describes common threads to all the ‘tough guys’ Hammett uses for his protagonists and he explains how this story was a departure in theme, thus the ‘love story’ component explained. I would assume if you are a fan of Hammett, this story WITH the Introduction is a must.
But I didn’t like the story. It didn’t have the frantic “Oh no! What’s going to happen next?” suspenseful tension. And come on, women should not fall in love with the tough guy when he forcibly kisses them. It’s definitely a book that lacks respect for women; I don’t care what time period it is set in.
RATING: Two slices of pie.
WORDS: p.144 of TMF – lathy … = lathlike; long and thin. [I could not, however, find 'lathlike' in the dictionary.]
151 of TMF – swart … = swarthy or of dark complexion.
****** Both of these books are available in BookMooch.com ******
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Reading reviews like this makes me want to get more into mysteries.
Trisha – Maybe look for sexy mysteries?
I loved The Maltese Falcon, both book and movie! I’ll be reading The Thin Man a little later on for RIP. The only one of Hammett’s I haven’t really liked was The Red Harvest – it was a little too disturbing for me!
Amanda, the Thin Man is most def on my read/watch list. I’ll avoid Red Harvest, thanks!
I’ve never read the book OR seen the movie. I’ve got to add this to my list of films to watch with my son. If I’m lucky I might even get him to read the book too.
Kathleen – Hopefully this weekend, we’ll get to the movie. I hate waiting, but schedules haven’t worked yet to sit and not watch football, ahem.
Good deal! I’ve never read either of these, but I did read The Thin Man which was fantastic. The characters were so funny– I was quite surprised– plus the mystery was top notch.
She – why is that I get surprised about comedy in ‘old’ movies?! so silly of me.
I think I started with The Maltese Falcon sometime back but I put it aside for one reason or another. You make me just want to get it off my shelf (and put this again on my ever-changing RIP pool)
Lightheaded – this might be a terrific change of pace from The Passage. Well, maybe not pace exactly, but concept, anyway.
I saw the movie version of The Maltese Falcon in high school but I don’t remember it well. I do want to read the book for sure.
Lola, I’m getting so excited to see Bogart!
I’m a Dashiell Hammett fan. Love The Maltese Falcon (book and movie) and the Thin Man book and movie series. Have you read The Thin Man? It’s loads of fun.
Nancy, not yet! I have added The Thin Man to my list.
This challenge is showing me a lot of mystery series that I wouldn’t mind trying. I don’t normally read a lot of them, but always good to have a list of good ones for when I plan to.
This is one reason I love RIP so much – so many different genres yet all focus on the THRILLING or heart-beat-racing concept.
Glad you enjoyed The Maltese Falcon. It’s one of my favorites. Although I loved the movie version of The Thin Man, I did not get into the book.
Charley – oh yea? movie(s) better than book? Honestly, it might be a long long time before I get to it anyway. Have you seen my tbr pile? egads…
The Thin Man movies are hilarious. I don’t know that I’d agree they’re better than the book (to me) but I can see why someone would say that because they’re just so darned fun. I’ve got the whole set. I think there are 7 movies.
Nancy, I’m just proud of myself that I *know* about The Thin Man! Actually, I might not have realized that ol’ DH wrote them, tho. Someday.