Spade and Archer: The Prequel to The Maltese Falcon

A daring prequel to Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon

In 1921 San Fransisco, Sam Spade quits the Continental Detective Agency to open up his own private investigative practice; partnering with Miles Archer who he knew married Sam¿s girlfriend Iva Nolan, when Spade volunteered for war service while he was serving overseas during the Great War. They hire Effie Perine as their secretary.

Sam works on a missing person¿s case as banking heir Henny Barber vanished, but the sleuth believes he took a ride on the San Anselmo passenger ship to the South Pacific. That case leads Sam into investigating stolen gold coins purloined on the San Anselmo. Though he hands the case to the cops on a gold platter the police blow the case allowing the mastermind to escape.

In 1925, insurance man Ray Kentzler surreptitiously hires Sam to determine the cause of death of banker Collin Eberhard as a homicide, a suicide or unfortunate accident. At the same time a friend of Effie, who still works for Spade & Archer, employs him to find her chest of Bergina.

In 1928 Mai-lin Choi seeks money stolen from her famous father who never recognized his offspring. Her efforts take Spade & Archer back to the 1921 stolen gold coins case and the mastermind of that heist.

This daring prequel to Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon is a great historical private investigative tale that grips the audience from the onset as Spade goes into partnership with Archer. The story line is fast-paced with the sleuthing top rate. The tale would work as a superb one sitting stand alone even without its obvious roots, but the most fun is following the early days of characters who are in the Maltese Falcon as fans will relish Joe Gores¿ excellent homage to the classic.

Harriet Klausner

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A Disappointing Noir

When I found this book online, I was excited because I liked 'The Maltese Falcon' film, which was based on the novel. Now I'm not a Dashiel Hammett fan so I'd be the last person you should talk to when discussing Hammett-style literature. Let me just get that out of the way.

The things I disliked about this novel were technical. For example, it took me out of the story whenever Mr. Gores wrote the words "would have" and "should have" into the grammatically wrong "should OF" and "would OF". After a while, I thought I should just put the novel down and toss it along with my unread novels. But in spite of it all, I thought I'd stick with it and give the author a chance. Boy, was I sorry.

The story meanders around, stretching the plot for several years. Granted, this device, when used well, comes in handy in a well-told narrative. By the end of the story, he didn't give me enough motivation to root for the hero. The villain was simply not menacing enough. There wasn't enough in the hero that made me want to follow him.

***SPOILER AHEAD***
Sam Spade sleeps with his partner's wife. I don't even remember if Archer ever found out, or maybe I was just half-asleep. I really don't remember.

Sam Spade is supposed to be a male fantasy, but if he's going to behave like a douche, my eyes leave the page. However, Spade mentions it in the end that Archer slept with Spade's girlfriend. Two wrongs don't make a right. If you use the "wrong", make sure you add irony into it. For example, Hannibal Lechter was a cannibal, but he's calm and intelligent who chose his victims well; victims who deserved to be eaten. Archer was just a poor guy who had no clue of what was going on around him and his home life.

Mr. Gores offended me when he suggested that someone would actually go through the process of plastic surgery to be turned into a half-breed Asian and Caucasian, and then murdering the doctor just in case he talks. Yeah, it's that easy and simple, from a Caucasian's point of view.

By the end of the novel, I simply didn't care. Please don't ask me to pick up the book and check, as I thoroughly hate it and I'm using the word lightly.

Hodgepodge

It's a bad sign when all the good lines come from the original work. For a work that is so sketchily written, it, nevertheless, drags. Well, more meanders than drags. I had to give up on the novel somewhere beyond the halfway point. Take out all of the Hammett derivatives and there's not much left but bad dialogue and truncated, disconnected, implausible episodes. Gores is a prolific writer. My only other foray into his work was the novel, Hammett(another abandoned book, I don't remember why). His other work may be great, but to satisfy the "noir," I recommend the original, The Maltese Falcon. If you like a spare Hemingwayesque style of "noir," try Westlake writing under the Richard Stark pseudonym.

A Good Idea And A Good Read

A step into a time when characters were vivid, unexpected and fun to know.

If you've seen the Maltese Falcon lately - it's even better.

Great prequel to The Maltese Falcon

Joe Gores goes back in time to the beginning of Sam Spade's solo career and his partnership with Miles Archer. You also discover the relationship between Sam and Miles' wife, Iva, and how he acquires his great secretary/girl of all trades Effie Perine.

This book stands on its own, and is also a great introduction to Dashiel Hammett's characters. You have a better understanding of the "before" of Sam Spade when you read The Maltese Falcon, and now you know why he wiped Archer's name off the door so quickly.

Gores has a good feel for that era in America, the little day-to-day features and local description that let you picture the scenes and action much more clearly. His prose style doesn't mimic Hammett's but it's close enough that there's a feeling of continuity when you finish Gores' book and pick up Hammett's.

Gumshoe gets stuck

Original as it could be, interesting plot, good character development, but what is missing is the author wasn't alive in the 1920s and consequently the dialog isn't the snappy, hard-bitten patois that was present in the MF. I kept looking but I couldn't find Bogey in this book.

A Worthy Prequel

Joe Gores is too good a writer to slavishly imitate Hammett. However, his style always had much of the latter's characteristics. He knows he cannot top the Maltese Falcon and so he has a bit of fun imagining what brought some vof the characters together. He never tries to bring Spade and his cohorts into the modern era, unlike Robert B. Parker's Marlowe pastiches. In shortt, if you liked Gores' DKA Files novels or if the idea of a new Sam Spade story (actually three linked novelettes, much as Hammett himself wrote his Op novels) intrigues you, this book will not disappoint.

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