By Dashiell Hammett
The most famous of all hard-boiled detective novels, "The Maltese Falcon" is a fun read. The plot revolves around an intricate web of deception, as private investigator Sam Spade navigates through conflicting accounts from various characters. What makes the story particularly engaging is watching Spade piece together the truth by comparing different versions of events, weighing what each character claims to know against what actually transpired.
Reading over other reviews of the Maltese Falcon, I see that all characters are only described through their appearance, their words and their actions. At no point does the narrator share their inner thoughts.
In addition, main character, Sam Spade, is ultimately a good man even though he flirts with the dark side-- just enough to earn a criminals trust, but never enough it actually do something wrong. This distinction-- a main character vs a morally ambiguous main character is what distinguishes "Hard Boiled" literature from "Noir."
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