The Maltese Falcon

By: Dashiell Hammett

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Critic reviews

"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)

ending the best

the end was one of the best i have heard. excellent! word word word word word

The best writing of dialogue !

We have all seen the movie but here is so much more to enjoy! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

fun book, clearly read, falsetto is distracting.

Dufris catches the sense of the noir genre well in his narration. But his female voice characterizations don't quite work for me.

Best read book I have ever listened to.

What made the experience of listening to The Maltese Falcon the most enjoyable?

Perfectly read story that makes it seam as if you are truly involved in the story of the book. Characters are easy to tell apart because they are acted so well. The story is classic and still stands on its own today.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Of course, this is classic noir.

Have you listened to any of William Dufris’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

n/a

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would say yes even though I did not.

Any additional comments?

I'd get this one for sure.

the voice acting was an homage to the movie

Sam Spade was a very unlikable character through the majority of this book. Completely redeeming himself at the end the voice acting was a wonderful homage for Gutman and Cairo to their original actors. and I was grateful that the gentleman performing didn't even attempt Bogart's voice. It's a wise man that knows his limitations.

The Maltese Falcon

I enjoyed the story. Kind of like the old Dragnet. The narration was good and we'll worth the listen.

It's good.

The narrator isn't great but he voiced Cairo with a Peter Lorre impression which makes up for everything.

Fabulous Rendition

I enjoyed every minute! The reader was quite good, but the story far exceeded my expectations. What a ride!

A short but we'll written mystery

The Maltese Falcon is a well written and thought out mystery. It should come as no surprise that is widely considered to be one of the most fundamental mystery novels. The plot was thick enough that nothing was obvious yet easy to keep pace with.

The only real drawback was the main characters with none of them being very likeable. Not even the protagonist. Although he does redeem himself quite a bit at the end.

Play it again, Sam.

The audiobook of the Maltese Falcon exceeded my expectations. It was richer, and more detailed than the movie (in which Bogie played Sam Spade). The femme fatale is wonderfully portrayed, as is the treacherous Joel Cairo. This is the first time I have heard an American reader carry off multiple voices and characters. Usually the 'dipthong drift' which characterises Amer-English makes the voices too whiney and insubstantial when compared, for example, with Richard Burton or Derek Jacobi. But this book is the exception. The voice of Cairo (Peter Lorrie in the movie) is delightful, as if the actor himself, dead all these years, had come back.

Listening to the audiobook also made me realise how much 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit ?' owed to the book, rather than the movie. The mental images created are very strong in this novel, the characters so stereotypical or 'characaturised' as to be almost cartoonish, but in an entertaining way, and in a style which reflected the 1940's I suppose.

This might be the best audiobook I have heard so far. Strongly recommended, but you do have to pay attention !