GET A CLUE! INVESTIGATE "THE MALTESE FALCON"

The 2012 Big Read title is considered one of the best detective novels of all time. Brilliantly written, it's a thriller, a love story and a dark, dry comedy. The 1930 classic was Dashiell Hammett's third novel.

The story is set in San Francisco over a six-day period. Tough, independent Detective Sam Spade is hired by the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. Suspicion shifts to Spade when his partner and a city thug are murdered, and he vows to discover the murderer while the police question his innocence.

Not long after, a shadowy character pays a surprise visit and offers $5,000 for the return of a jewel-encrusted black bird statue. Spade soon realizes that many others — including Brigid — are seeking the elusive falcon statuette once owned by the legendary Knights of Rhodes. Spade cleverly plays along to find the falcon and prove his innocence in the murders.

Big Read 2013

What are we going to read next? We'll announce the 2013 Big Read in July 2012.

ABOUT DASHIELL HAMMETT

Dashiell Hammett was born in 1894 on his family's Maryland farm. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. He left school at age 14 and held several jobs — messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, timekeeper, yardman and ultimately became an operative for Pinkerton's Detective Agency.

He served as a sergeant in World War I, but health problems led to his discharge and he resumed his Pinkerton career. He later turned to writing, and in the late 1920s became the unquestioned master of detective-story fiction in the United States.

In the late 20s he published Red Harvest, The Dain Curse and The Maltese Falcon, releasing "Falcon" in 1930. He wrote The Glass Key in 1931 and The Thin Man in 1934, his last novel. Hammett died on Jan. 10, 1961.