The Maltese Falcon: The Restored Text

by Dashiell Hammett

SELECTED AS ONE OF THE TOP 5 MYSTERY NOVELS OF ALL TIME (MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA)

The best-selling detective story by Dashiell Hammett, now restored from the original text.

Time called The Maltese Falcon “one of the best mystery and thriller books [ever written].” The story’s impact has been profound, influencing the likes of Raymond Chandler and inspiring the Oscar®-winning film Chinatown. Here the classic is restored to Hammett’s original words. While other versions of the book contain dozens of editorial changes and corruptions, this new edition features the complete unabridged text, meticulously reproduced from the 1930 book. Each page was verified word by word and mark by mark, then corrected for typos to make for a clean reading experience.

This special edition of The Maltese Falcon all-new reproduction of Hammett’s original 1930 textRestored passages not found in many other editions todayDetailed annotations that give deeper insights into the storyDesign elements and layout that mimic the original book
IT IS THE late 1920s in San Francisco. A perfumed swindler, a slick fat man, and a red-headed femme fatale have all converged here in connection with some fabled and priceless artifact. In their footsteps stalks Samuel Spade, a veteran private eye with a blond-satan’s face, a wolfish grin, and his own code of ethics. After two men are murdered, Spade will stop at nothing—save for the frequent rolling of cigarettes and the occasional roll in the hay—to untangle the mystery of who killed the men and who has the Maltese falcon.

“Dashiell Hammett … is a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer.”
—The Boston Globe

Published in the USA

Genres: Noir

214 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2026

About the author

Also wrote as Peter Collinson, Daghull Hammett, Samuel Dashiell, Mary Jane Hammett

Dashiell Hammett, an American, wrote highly acclaimed detective fiction, including The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1934).

Samuel Dashiell Hammett authored hardboiled novels and short stories. He created Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), and the Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) among the enduring characters. In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on film, Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time" and was called, in his obituary in the New York Times, "the dean of the... 'hard-boiled' school of detective fiction."

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell...

Reviews

[RANGER]

The Original Classic Restored for the Modern Reader; includes interesting footnotes

This edition of Dashiell Hammett's classic pulp novel is entitled The Maltese Falcon: The Restored Text and contains original and sometimes archaic content that was edited out in later editions. I am always a sucker for these restored texts because I like vintage language, underused words, anachronisms, and other peculiarities of original editions. This restored text did not disappoint.

I won't bother with any synopsis material because this is one of the most popular detective novels ever written and has been made into several films including the 1941 noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart--among the most iconic films ever made. But suffice to say, as a novel, the book starts out slow and builds to a fine ending -- as many hardboiled, pot-boiler mysteries of that era did. The book is not only a classic detective novel (considered by some to be the greatest) but also, in its restored version, a classic work of 1929 pulp fiction which always had an eerie, dreamy quality to it that is fascinating to read but somewhat lacking in reality. And to risk a spoiler alert, it is a classic con story, with twists and turns you don't see coming until the very end.

I like this novel very much. As it began as a serialized story in Black Mask magazine in 1929-30, it is judicious with its word count. The story is lean and even when the material gets a bit dense, it never distracts from the plot which starts slow, moves along nicely by mid-book and increases in tempo until the startling ending. I love the footnotes that explain some of the original content and context that was restored in this edition. The language, values and worldview of pre-WWII America were very different from our our post-modern society (to say the least), so there will always be some woke whiner or empowered feminist who wants to give novels like this a low rating for being misogynistic or homo-phobic or some other such nonsense. *yawn* Ignore that type of negative review. In fact, that novels like this are still popular and respected says a lot about the literary quality of its writing -- and the historical value of old novels in giving us a glimpse at a world that no longer exists but did exist at one time. Hammett based Sam Spade, the story and the characters on his own real life experiences as a Pinkerton Detective, the premier private investigative agency of his time.

All in all, this novel is HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended.

[Brent]

I don't know why this book/story is so highly regarded. It was annoyingly silly, far fetched, and unsatisfying. I am glad it was short. I do not recommend it to anyone.

[Andrew Prendergast]

A genre defining novel. Still it definitely does not feel as though it breaks through the time it was written like all great classics. Still it’s a breezy read that keeps you interested through its twists and turns.

[Patrick King]

This is, I think, the fifth time I've read The Maltese Falcon but this particular version is the original text that appeared in Black Mask Magazine from 1930. This is nicely annotated with explanations about Hammett's use of terms and spellings more conventional 90 years ago than they are today. Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, is the original "hard boiled" detective and reading it today, having read many hard boiled novels from Raymond Chandler's complete works to Ross MacDonald's, to James Ellroy's, no one so far has come up with a more involving plot nor a tougher detective than Sam Spade. I read this book the other day very quickly and I think I enjoyed it more than I did when I read it at 14, 63 years ago. There are quite a few additions in this version that do not appear in the earliest published book versions, Rhea Gutman for example. While I can understand why they cut her out, she adds another level of perversion to this coven of sociopaths Hammett invented almost a century ago. If you've seen John Huston's movie from 1941, both the story and the dialogue are nicely lifted from the book. The book, on the other hand, offers much more information about the historic evidence for the iconic "black bird." I've read three biographies of Dashiell Hammett and no author has gone to the trouble to explain where Hammett got the amazing concept for "the stuff that dreams are made of." That line, by the way, was ad-libbed by Bogart from Shakespeare's The Tempest, and is not in the novel. The Maltese Falcon is a fabulous book and very satisfying read even 96 years later.

[William Cunningham]

Lives up to its hype!

I’ve seen the movie with Bogart, Greenstreet, and Lorre many times over the years but never read the book. Worth every second of my time. It actually starts a little slow and choppy, but it hits its stride by the third chapter and quickly engrosses the reader. The second half is almost flawless in storytelling, plot development, characters, and noir style and tone. So much of the so-called best selling mysteries and thrillers today are light, cardboard, generic, mindless reads. It feels almost depressing to find an almost 100-year-old book to be so refreshingly stimulating and enjoyable. There has always been crap writing, but I wonder if it has always received the acclaim it does today. Read this for a little escape but then have a drink when you return to today’s literature.

[KYLE BIBEL]

painful to read

This was the worst book of the year for me so far. Unlikable characters, confusing plot, and forgettable story. Not sure what the hype was all about... Hopefully, the sequel will be better.