The greatest crime novel of the 20th century launches the 'Crime Masterworks' series. 'The Maltese Falcon' set the standard by which the private eye genre is judged.
Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and when Spade's partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?
'Crime Masterworks' is a library of the greatest crime fiction ever written, chosen with the help of today's leading crimewriters and critics. However, they are categorised - hard-boiled, suspense, police procedural - all books in the series are the best of their kind.
