Spade and Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett's the Maltese Falcon

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Spade and Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett's the Maltese Falcon

by Joe Gores

3.59 · rating details · 336 ratings · 106 reviews

A convincing throwback to a lost noir era: the authorized prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s classic, The Maltese Falcon.

We know what P.I. Sam Spade is about from the first pages of Hammett’s iconic book: straight talk, no favors, a protective shell he wears like a second skin. We know that his late partner, Miles Archer, was a son of a bitch; that Spade is involved with Archer

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Published by Orion (first published February 10th 2009)

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Mar 02, 2009

Robert rated it

· review of another edition

Finished this yesterday, and must say I enjoyed it. Gores has the Hammett style down and it seems like it could well be the "McCoy" instead of the pastiche/homage that it is--to be sure, it is in the style of "Red Harvest" or "The Dain Curse" . . . three shporter separate adventures with a through line. There are a couple of howlers, though, for instance on p. 62 Gores has Spade sit on a red vinyl stool--forgetting that Vinyl as we know it wasn't viable before...more

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Dec 12, 2008

Spiros rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: any and all Hammett fans

Recommended to Spiros by: KPR

Shelves: arc, california

Fittingly, it all starts with Flitcraft.
In the middle of THE MALTESE FALCON, which has been called the first existential detective novel, Sam Spade tells Brigid O'Shaugnessy about a case involving a man named Flitcraft, who disappeared from his affluent life in Tacoma, only to be tracked down ten years later in Spokane, living an identical life. This story, which has no bearing whatsoever on the MALTESE FALCON, is Joe Gores' starting point for this prequel.
As with his previous novel,...more

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Dec 07, 2011

HBalikov rated it

· review of another edition

Dashiell Hammett wrote some great yarns. My favorite may be the brutal Red Harvest, but he showed a lighter touch with The Thin Man and built on his own detective experience with The Continental Op.

His excellent noir, The Maltese Falcon, was the only story that featured private eye, Sam Spade.
Anyone who saw the movie was struck with Humphrey Bogart's ability to vitalize Spade. And his monologue at the end, directed at Mary Astor is perfection.

Now with the blessing of th...more

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Feb 17, 2011

MB Taylor rated it

· review of another edition

Finished reading Spade & Archer (2009) by Joe Gores on the way to work this morning. Subtitled “The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon”, Spade & Archer presents three episodes in Sam Spade’s life from 1921, 1925 and 1928; each episode is a nearly self-contained novella, about half the length of The Maltese Falcon. The last ends about half an hour before The Maltese Falcon begins (well the last five paragraphs are a verbatim quote from the first page of The Maltese Falcon).

...moreFinished reading Spade & Archer (2009) by Joe Gores on the way to work this morning. Subtitled “The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon”, Spade & Archer presents three episodes in Sam Spade’s life from 1921, 1925 and 1928; each episode is a nearly self-contained novella, about half the length of The Maltese Falcon. The last ends about half an hour before The Maltese Falcon begins (well the last five paragraphs are a verbatim quote from the first page of The Maltese Falcon).

I enjoyed it thoroughly; it’s good honest escapism. I have no idea how authentic Gores 1920’s San Francisco is, but it seemed very real to me. Several years ago I read his earlier book, Hammett, a fictionalization of Hammett’s life which was also very enjoyable.

One of the downsides to seeing a really good movie made from a book is that the image of the characters is forever tied to the image of the actors. Can anyone read about Sam Spade and not visualize Humphrey Bogart? I can’t, even though he and the book version of Sam Spade look very little alike. Spade is 6 feet tall and blond (at least according to Hammett, I don’t remember Gores mentioning a hair color); Bogart was 5’ 8” and had dark hair (even in the movie).

As much as I enjoyed the book, I have mixed feelings about it. Hammett gave us a novel and three short stories about Spade and basically defined the hard-boiled detective story, where the “who done it” of it is of less importance than the characters and the dialog. Did we need more stories about Spade? Doesn’t it lessen his mystique somewhat? Is a hero with an unknown past interacting with secondary characters with whom he has history we don’t know less interesting once we know more of the back story? It’s Interesting to know a little more, but I don’t think I want to know any more. Spade & Archer was a fun read, but I hope there won’t be any more.

Now I’ve got to read The Maltese Falcon again and see if it seems deeper or shallower knowing what I know now.
(less)

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Sep 27, 2010

Mike rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone

I read this book several months ago and I could have sworn that I added a review for it... oh well.

I know that to some people it might seem like bad manners or even heresy to presume to take the Bogart-character-to-be and write a tale around him and his partner. But who among us has never read a collaboration of two or more authors? Or a book completed posthumously by a second author? Or something ghost-written (ok, leave that one out of the "good" side of the scoreboard...more

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Jun 10, 2009

Robyn rated it

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Shelves: reviews

That Joe Gores is a huge fan of Dashiell Hammett is no secret - if your missed his Hammett (Crime Masterworks)- you will want to go back and order it after reading Spade & Archer.

This book gives you everything you expect from a Sam Spade novel - mysteries, keen detective work, shootings, damsels in distress, slimey partners, and the quick hard and fast dialogue that Humphrey Bogart pushed to iconic!

Spade & Archer will draw you in from the beginning with Spade impersonatin...more

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May 20, 2009

Tony rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

Gores, Joe. SPADE & ARCHER. (2009). ****. Touted as a prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon,” it could be – especially with the end that obviously leads into that case. It’s really a P.I. novel using Sam Spade and his one-time partner, Miles Archer, as the protagonists. Although several cases are covered, there is a common thread through all of them – the villain. Sam has just left the Continental Detective Agency in Seattle and moved on to San Francisco to start his own busin...more

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Feb 27, 2009

Erin rated it

· review of another edition

i know. why do so many writers feel an urge to write a prequel or sequel to somebody else's great work of literature? but still, i picked this book up. it may have been the cover that drew my eye... noir to the last detail. and gores does a great job with it. first, he's able to write in the mood of the great hammett. while that means i still don't know whether or not gores is a good writer, it did enable me to really enjoy this story. its sprawling -- covers over a decade in the life of ...more

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Apr 15, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: may-june-2009

Nearly all critics begin their reviews with one, head-scratching question: Why? The pages of book sections are littered with excoriating reviews of prequels to classics like Gone With The Wind and The Godfather. So it's an even greater tribute to Gores's achievement that, but for one glaring exception, he creates a chorus of converts. This meticulously researched backstory is a highly entertaining novel in its own right, albeit one that happens to cast new light on one of crime fiction's most co

...more

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Jul 23, 2011

Kurt rated it

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This book isn't terrible, and Gores clearly loves Dashiell Hammett, the Maltese Falcon, and San Francisco of the 1920s, but Gores' prequel is mostly valuable for showcasing how phenomenally talented Dashiell Hammett was. There are many things to like about this story, which covers seven years of Sam Spade's life, ending with a scene that overlaps an early scene of Hammett's classic. The action is very much in keeping with Hammett's style, in which bad things happen to people, but mostly off-scre...moreThis book isn't terrible, and Gores clearly loves Dashiell Hammett, the Maltese Falcon, and San Francisco of the 1920s, but Gores' prequel is mostly valuable for showcasing how phenomenally talented Dashiell Hammett was. There are many things to like about this story, which covers seven years of Sam Spade's life, ending with a scene that overlaps an early scene of Hammett's classic. The action is very much in keeping with Hammett's style, in which bad things happen to people, but mostly off-screen, and sex is treated the same way. The pacing is also well-done, as the three major sections of this book each fly by briskly without wasting too much time on superfluous activity. I also like the idea of a shadowy villain who haunts Hammett's life for seven years, leaving the detective weary and jaded when the Maltese Falcon enters his life. The characters are treated with love, as the reader gets a bit of an explanation of why Effie Perine rolls Spade's cigarettes for him, why Spade has such prickly interactions with the local police in his most famous case, and why Spade began his affair with Iva Archer that added such an intriguing layer to his character in his original appearance.

Unfortunately, this book isn't very good on its own. I appreciate that Gores did a lot of research on old San Francisco, but it surfaces in awkward ways throughout the novel - for example, two characters will be having a conversation by a public pool, and they will trade trivia bits that show them to be intimately familiar with its dimensions, history, and engineering. It shoves the reader out of the story, and I think it's the sign of Gores' lack of confidence - characters are saying that a particular island is seven miles from Fisherman's Wharf, but they mean, "Please, please, Hammett fans, I promise I did my homework when I tackled this project, please don't hate me!" There are also some odd recurring phrases - did Hammett use the term "hooked his hip over/onto the corner of her desk," because Gores uses it no fewer than six times, and I lost the train of the narrative trying to figure out why Gores would overuse such a silly phrase. I also think that Gores can't quite pay homage to Hammett's wit and his knack for cruel but creative character descriptions.

Also, when the reader can slip past the shadow of Hammett's original work, then dive below the cluttered shield of too much research, the stories underneath are fairly lifeless pulp. I admire the pulp stories of the 1920s and 1930s that never got the attention that Hammett and Chandler drew, but they lacked a certain vitality that set those two masters above their peers. Reading this prequel reminds me of how hard it is to write a noir story that is also great literature, and while it works as a love letter to Dashiell Hammett and Sam Spade, it doesn't work as a story that Hammett himself might have written, and I don't really recommend this book to anyone but the most hardcore of Hammett fans. (less)

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Sep 26, 2009

Terry rated it

· review of another edition

I love the works of Dashiell Hammett and I liked the earlier books of Joe Gores, but I hit a wall on this one and almost gave it up early on. I stuck with it and became a little more engaged as the book progressed. The plotting is a lot like Hammett, but the writing is arch and self-conscious -- and I found myself editing constantly, which is not a good way to enjoy a novel. Gores just tries too hard -- or maybe I'd be disappointed if I go back and read Hammett again. He also tries too hard ...more

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Jun 14, 2009

Jrobertus rated it

· review of another edition

This book is a wonderfully written prequel to The Maltese falcon. Joe Gores writes in the Hammett style and he has got the character down cold. The novel begins in 1921; Spade is back from the war and working as an Op for the Continental Detective Agency in Seattle. He finishes a case there, quits the agency and returns to San Francisco to set up his own office. Gores weaves a complex of plots, but ties them up neatly. Despite the title, the book is not mostly about how Archer becomes his par...more

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Mar 25, 2009

Vicki rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: audible

This was a fun prequel to The Maltese Falcon recently written by Joe Gores. I read The Maltese Falcon earlier this month and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. In fact, I was drawn to get this book because I wanted to read more about Sam Spade. I'm not sure the Spade in S&A is really the Spade of TMF--even at the end of S&A, which closes where TMF opens. But he's close enough that I was pretty well satisfied by the book. The period set-pieces and atmosphere were great, and I liked how ...more

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Mar 08, 2009

Trish rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries

Gores does a magnificent job of recreating the era in which Hammett wrote and the rhythm of his style. I thought the first two parts of the book were authentic and well-done, with tension, dialogue, and human drama. I was less enamored of the last part. I see in the acknowledgements that he had help with that part. I thought the third part unconvincing and slow, and left loose ends in my mind about the main character, Samuel Spade. I came to care about him and his activities less than before. I...more

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Aug 14, 2011

Suzan rated it

· review of another edition

The prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s crime classic The Maltese Falcon provides noir lovers with detailed character studies that reveal how one of the world’s most iconic detectives became the hard-boiled, straight-shooting and canny operator we know and love from The Maltese Falcon. Gores creates, seemingly effortlessly, an enthralling and atmospheric recreation of San Francisco in the 1920s—where bootleg booze, broads, gold smugglers, waterfront thugs and grizzled cops vie for attention in a serie...more

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Sep 26, 2011

Jennifer rated it

· review of another edition

This book has some buzz about it. I am not sure how I feel about extensions of another author's work, is it poaching or brave and forward thinking? Partially reading this now because I am enjoying the city lately and wanted to read about its past, and I really love the genre. So far I would say that his writing is a shadow of Hammett's so this is vaguely unsatisfying. I vividly remember reading Hammett's Continental short stories which had an electricity about the prose and visuals. This is...more

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Jul 26, 2011

Ron Arden added it · review of another edition

Joe Gores brought me right into the world of Sam Spade. This is supposed to be a prequel to Dashiell Hammett's great "The Maltese Falcon" and it could have been written by Hammett himself.

We meet Sam Spade just after WW I in Seattle, where he is about to quit the Continental detective agency and strike out on his own. He goes to San Francisco, hangs out a shingle, hires the great Effie Perine as a secretary and is off and running. As I was reading this book I was picturing Humphrey ...more

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Mar 06, 2009

Stephen Barry rated it

· review of another edition

An interesting prequel to the Maltese Falcon which is good with the flavor of Hammett and captures much of the mood of the early hard boiled genre but gets too caught up in tiny details trying to show how familiar the author is with Hammett's work.While the first two thirds of the book are page turning and enjoyable the ending seemed somewhat contrived as if the author had settled on a page limit before finishing the story and realized he had to wrap it all up right away.
For ...more

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Jul 26, 2009

Dale rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, fiction

It would be easy enough to criticize this novel on a number of fronts: the forgettable and not very believable plots, the over-attention to minute details of San Francisco streets and places, the almost parodic use of the Hammett style. But these are inconsequential when held up against the sheer pleasure of reading a Sam Spade novel. Spade skirts the law and has no time for its representatives, but holds his own ethical code inviolate, even when doing so puts himself at risk. He is also a kind ...moreIt would be easy enough to criticize this novel on a number of fronts: the forgettable and not very believable plots, the over-attention to minute details of San Francisco streets and places, the almost parodic use of the Hammett style. But these are inconsequential when held up against the sheer pleasure of reading a Sam Spade novel. Spade skirts the law and has no time for its representatives, but holds his own ethical code inviolate, even when doing so puts himself at risk. He is also a kind of renaissance man, instantly 'getting' literary references from Shakespeare to Fitzgerald.

In the introductory case in this novel Spade has been hired to find an absent husband - a man who simply disappeared one day, leaving behind a successful business and a happy family life. When Spade finds him, the man tells him that he had been nearly killed by a falling beam, and that the randomness of it brought him to the realization that if life is driven by random forces then he himself might as well live his life randomly. But in his report on the incident Spade notes that once the man adjusted to having survived a falling beam, he 'adjusted right back' to his old life, just in a different city and a different wife and a different family. This is an implied, though unstated, reference to Eliot's observation that 'humankind cannot bear very much reality' - and is an echo of the existentialist thought so prevalent in the 1920s in the aftermath of a devastating war that removed all possibility of belief in a stable world and a stable place for ourselves in it. Spade's ability to see this and to express it so compactly is one of the great appeals of the Spade character. Gores does a fine job here.

There are similar tidbits throughout the novel, but the overall arc of the storyline is a bit muddled. The novel is really three interlinked novellas, linked only by the characters and by a shadowy criminal master mind who nearly, but not quite, succeeds in stealing a large quantity of gold in the first story and who returns later in a variety of disguises (sometimes with little apparent reason) to get his hands on the gold, and to make Spade's life a misery for having thwarted him in the first place. The three stories take place at four-year intervals through the 1920s, ending at the precise moment when The Maltese Falcon begins. We are given a plausible back-story for the Spade-Archer relationship, we learn why the secretary Effie Perrine is so loyal to Spade, we meet Sid Wise, the attorney that Spade consults occasionally, and we're given plenty of background on Spade himself. We also find out that Spade has a nearly photographic memory for every street corner in his adopted San Francisco, and that he is equally at ease with street thugs, politicians, and bankers. In short, there's nothing here that disturbs our image of the Sam Spade played by Humphrey Bogart.(less)

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Apr 24, 2009

Margaret rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: any Hammett or hardboiled fan

Recommended to Margaret by: my brother

Shelves: hardboiled-detective

Well, it took six hours, (I had a head cold) but I pounded through it the next day. It rocked.

The author is inarguably an expert on Hammett: his work, his life, his style, his quirks. Still, it's damn creepy how closely he hit natural tone and flow Hammett in this piece.

Amy Tan said that her mother told her she believed that grandma had visited Amy and told her the story of the Joy Luck Club...she laughed at the story...I wondered if the same thing had happened to Gores....more

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Jul 30, 2011

Patrick Nichol rated it

· review of another edition

Fans of The Maltese Falcon and Bogie will love this engrossing new novel by veteran mystery novelist Joe Gores.

Spade & Archer is the prequel to Hammett's famous gumshoe, and you learn a lot about what makes Sam Spade tick.

The story begins some 20 years before The Maltese Falcon as Spade starts out on his own. We learn Miles Archer, his future partner, stole his girl while he fought in WW I.

And we follow Spade as he investigates gold heists, bank fraud and a murder connected to famed Chinese Nat...more

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Apr 16, 2010

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

For Dashiell Hammet fans, this was a satisfying read. The author did a good job of creating the period mood for this book set in San Francisco in the 1920's. It read like I was watching an old Humprey Bogart,Sam Spade movie complete with authentic dialogue and characters. The story covers the early years of Spade's P.I. carreer in starting his own agency and eventually bringing Miles Lord on as his Partner, leaving off just before the Maltese Falcon caper is about to begin. All that being said, ...more

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Apr 13, 2010

Ryan Van Meter rated it

· review of another edition

Good plot, but a little too playful in spots to feel authentically noir. The Spade character is a spot-on portrayal, and the novel is filled with colorful figures and embellishments of familiar ones. The Archer character, however, is a major disappointment. Despite the twin billing on the cover, Archer is almost as absent in this book as he is in The Maltese Falcon. I don't think that would have disappointed me as much if the book seemed to sell itself on introducing me to Spade and Archer's...more

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Aug 05, 2009

Dewey rated it

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I have not read "The Maltese Falcon", so I did not know what to expect. That said, I really enjoyed the novel. Sam Spade leaves Continental and opens his own PI office. He hires Effie Perine as his secretary and starts investigating cases. There is a villan who runs through 3 cases and eludes Spade. Why it is named "Spade & Archer", I have no idea. Archer is hardly in the novel and only used as a way to get his wife, Spade's lover, into the San Francisco area. The 1920...more

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Sep 04, 2010

Brackman1066 rated it

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Shelves: mysteries, historical_fiction

This is much better than the usual run of prequels or slapped-together "unfinished novels" based on notes, etc. Gores writes a clean and entertaining trio of mysteries. I like Hammett's Spade short stories slightly better than the Maltese Falcon (and prefer the Continental Op to Spade overall), and this was more in the spirit of those than the famous novel. Perhaps if you feel the opposite, you won't enjoy Spade and Archer as much. One quibble I share with other reviewers is the title-...more

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Jan 05, 2010

Debbie rated it

· review of another edition

This was a little weird reading so soon after The Devil's Garden since some of the scenes from Hammett's life that appeared in that book are interposed into the early fictional career of Sam Spade, a little deja vu.

Even my passing knowledge of the world of Hammett was rewarded in this look at the early life of Sam Spade. The author was quite clever in depicting small details from both Hammett's life and his other stories into this story of Spades decade long search for a master crimi...more

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Nov 28, 2009

Laurie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone who likes film noir or hard-boiled mysteries

A great book for anyone who liked the Dashiell Hammett stories about Sam Spade or the movies made from them, like The Maltese Falcon. This is a prequel to The Maltese Falcon and gives you the background of how Spade and Archer came together and details about Spade's life before he became a detective.

Some of the same characters appear in this book, like Effie, Sam's secretary, and the cops he bangs heads with. I found it very well written and entertaining, and imagined the whole time...more

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Sep 15, 2011

David rated it

· review of another edition

Far better than what I was expecting although the book was recommended to me by someone who usually knows her stuff when it comes to crime fiction.

The book is written in three sections that cover cases that happen in the years 1921, 1925 and 1928. The cases are linked but also work as stand-alone short stories. Only the third story had elements that sometimes didn't ring true - a blepharoplasty?

In a nice little touch this Maltese Falcon prequel ends just as Spade is cal...more

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Jul 22, 2009

Jason rated it

· review of another edition

While I don't think it's nearly as good as The Maltese Falcon, Spade & Archer is a pretty good read. Gores does the hard-boil PI thing well, and it was fun follow Spade around as he interacted with characters that later show up in the Falcon. My only real gripe with the book is the time-line. In Spade & Archer, Sam finds Flitcraft and quits the Seattle detective agency in 1921. But when he tells the story in the Falcon, it was 1927 when he found Flitcraft and doesn't mention when he quit Seattle...more

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Feb 06, 2012

Steve Dennie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: black-lizard

I didn’t have high hopes for “Spade and Archer,” even though it is published under the Black Lizard imprint, which rarely disappoints. A prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s classic “The Maltese Falcon”? Really? Who exactly is Joe Gores? And who gave him permission to use Hammett’s characters?

Actually, Hammett’s surviving daughter gave permission. Gores approached her in 1999 about doing a prequel, and she said no. Then in 2004, she approached him about a sequel. He said no, but restated his ...moreI didn’t have high hopes for “Spade and Archer,” even though it is published under the Black Lizard imprint, which rarely disappoints. A prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s classic “The Maltese Falcon”? Really? Who exactly is Joe Gores? And who gave him permission to use Hammett’s characters?

Actually, Hammett’s surviving daughter gave permission. Gores approached her in 1999 about doing a prequel, and she said no. Then in 2004, she approached him about a sequel. He said no, but restated his interest in writing a prequel. She finally said yes in 2006, and the book was published in 2009.

When “The Maltese Falcon” opens, Sam Spade had been a detective for many years. Gores says, “I wanted to find out for myself who Sam Spade was when he started out–how did he become this iconic figure? Every private eye who I’ve known, including myself, thinks Sam Spade is the ideal detective.”

Spade set the pattern for hundreds of private eyes to come (most notably, Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer). He prefers to work alone. He has a love-hate relationship with cops (usually on their bad list). He’s a tough guy.He’s a ladies’ man. He notices things other people miss. He flaunts a sarcastic wit. And he doesn’t mind working outside the law. Gores brings all of this to vivid life.

The book spans a seven-year period, 1921-1928. The book begins as Sam Spade, after serving in World War I, is concluding his final case with the Continental Detective Agency. Spade sets up his own detective agency in San Francisco, and brings aboard Effie Perine as his, as they would say today, administrative assistant.

The book has three parts–the first cases in 1921 (a gold heist and a runaway boy), a second batch in 1925, and a final set in 1928 after Archer joins the firm (these involving thievery on the waterfront and lost money raised for Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen). The opening case involved gold stolen from a ship which had just arrived in San Francisco harbor from Australia via Hawaii. From this case emerges a villain named St. Claire McPhee who gets away, but who is never forgotten by Spade. He keeps arising as we go through the book. That gives a continuity thread.

The cases are all quite interesting, and not so complicated (as are some of Hammett’s plots) that you lose track of what’s happening.

About two-thirds of the way through the book, Miles Archer, an old friend, joins the firm. Spade and Archer’s gorgeous wife, Iva, have periodic flings. Though, since Gores is writing in the style of Hammett, the trysts are only implied and always off-camera.

Another reviewer, Dan Faust, wrote, “Gores manages to do something that Hammett couldn’t: he got me to connect with Sam Spade.”

I completely agree. The Spade drawn by Gores is a much more interesting and fully developed character than Hammett gave us. After finishing this book, I read the short story, “A Man Called Spade,” one of three short stories about Spade written after “The Maltese Falcon” (because fans clamored for more Spade, and Hammett needed the money). That piece didn’t tell me much about Spade. Instead, I found myself inserting the mental picture of the man I crafted from reading “Spade and Archer.”

Bottom line: I really, really liked “Spade and Archer.” The plots–a series of plots, all dispatched in good time–were interesting and easy to follow. I found myself feeling like I was in 1920s San Francisco (Gores obviously did bountiful research).

The book ends with Effie Perine announcing the arrival of a potential new client, Wonderly, who gets “The Maltese Falcon” started. The last few paragraphs of “Spade and Archer” are identical to the opening paragraphs of “The Maltese Falcon.” That was a nice touch, and does nothing to spoil for you “Spade and Archer.”(less)

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About Joe Gores

JOE GORES is the author of the acclaimed DKA series of street-level crime and detection, as well as the stunning suspense novels Dead Man and Menaced Assassin. Born in 1931, he served in the U.S. Army-writing biographies of generals at the Pentagon-was educated at the University of Notre Dame and Stanford, and spent twelve years as a San Francisco private investigator. The author of dozens of nove...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10414153-spade-and-archer?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327955894m/10414153.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10414153-spade-and-archer?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Spade and Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett's the Maltese Falcon by Joe Gores[/url]

Spade and Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett's the Maltese Falcon

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