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Spade & Archer: The Prequel To Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (2009)

by Joe Gores(Favorite Author)

3.6 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0307264645 (ISBN13: 9780307264640)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Knopf

review 1: The concept is intriguing: a prequel to "The Maltese Falcon" written by a Hammett biographer who also is a prolific mystery writer. In the end, I liked the author interview at the back better than the book. Joe Gores gets the Hammett cadence and the streets of San Francisco, but the soul (such as it is) of Sam Spade is sadly lacking. In the end, to me, "Spade & Archer" was a shadow show and not a particularly entertaining one.
review 2: 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 cons... moretantly, 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 to get very specific San Francisco locations into the book. Sometimes that's fun (if you're familiar with the place). Sometimes it's just an irrelevant distraction. Maybe a map would help. Gores also goes out of his way to describe characters as they appear (he is obsessed with the shape of faces), but since most do not reappear, this, too, seems a distraction. In short, Joe Gores is no Dashiell Hammett.... less

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