马耳他之鹰 (1929)

《马耳他之鹰》（英语：The Maltese Falcon）是美国作家达许·汉密特所著的推理小说，原本于黑面具杂志上连载。1998年，此书入选20世纪百大英文小说，排名第五十六位。同时，此书多次被改编成电影，当中包括1941年由亨弗莱·鲍嘉主演的枭巢喋血战。

故事简介

一日，一名漂亮女子到山姆·史培特的侦探社要求史培特跟踪她妹妹的男朋友，史培特的合伙人阿杰接手处理，怎料当晚两人都被枪击死亡。史培特向该女子追究，该女子自称布丽姬，然后编了一个故事欺骗史培特，史培特压根儿就不信她的说话，只是看在钱的份上才协助她。后来，一名叫开罗的男子找史培特，要求史培特取得布丽姬手上的物品。最后一名叫贾曼的男子介入，才取得布丽姬手上的物品，原来该物品是一件历史宝物，不过这件物件只是一件伪造品，众人最终不欢而散。

The Maltese Falcon is a 1930 detective novel by American writer Dashiell Hammett, originally serialized in the magazine Black Mask beginning with the September 1929 issue.

The story follows private detective Sam Spade in San Francisco, California, who becomes entangled in a web of lies, betrayal, and murder while pursuing a group of criminals desperate to obtain a priceless, jewel-encrusted falcon statuette. The story is told entirely in external third-person narrative; there is no description whatsoever of any character's thoughts or feelings, only what they say and do, and how they look.

The novel has been adapted several times for the cinema. It is considered part of the hardboiled genre, which Hammett played a major part in popularizing.

Plot

Sam Spade is a private detective in San Francisco, in partnership with Miles Archer. The beautiful "Miss Wonderly" hires them to follow Floyd Thursby, who she claims has run off with her sister. Archer takes the first stint but is found shot dead that night. Thursby is also killed later and Spade is a suspect. The next morning, Spade coolly tells his office secretary, Effie Perine, to have the office door repainted to read simply "Samuel Spade".

"Miss Wonderly" is soon revealed to be an acquisitive adventuress named Brigid O'Shaughnessy, who is involved in the search for a black statuette of unknown but substantial value. Others are after this falcon, including Joel Cairo, an effeminate criminal, and Casper Gutman, a fat man accompanied by a vicious young gunman, Wilmer Cook. O'Shaughnessy begs for Spade's protection while telling him as little as possible. They meet with Cairo at Spade's apartment, and Spade again presses O'Shaughnessy for details; again she stalls but kisses Spade. The next morning, she is asleep in his bed. Leaving her there, Spade slips out to search her apartment.

Effie believes O'Shaughnessy "is all right" and Spade should help her. Effie agrees to hide her at her own home, but O'Shaughnessy disappears again. When Spade meets Gutman in his hotel room, neither will tell what he knows. Spade implies he is looking out for himself, not O'Shaughnessy. Red herrings abound. The police suspect Spade in the shootings: he was sleeping with Archer's wife, Iva. The District Attorney ties the shootings to Dixie Monahan, a Chicago gambler who had employed Thursby as a bodyguard in the Far East.

At a second meeting, Gutman tells Spade the history of the tribute of the Maltese Falcon. It was made of gold and jewels by the 16th-century Knights of Malta as a gift to the King of Spain but was captured by pirates. After passing from owner to owner, at some time it was coated with black enamel to conceal its value. Gutman traced the falcon to General Kemidov, a Russian exile in Constantinople and hired O'Shaughnessy to get it; she brought in Cairo to help. O'Shaughnessy and Thursby fled with the falcon to Hong Kong and from there to San Francisco. During this conversation, Gutman drugs Spade, who passes out on the floor.

Spade awakens alone and returns to his office where a wounded ship's captain staggers in with a package containing the falcon and dies. O'Shaughnessy calls the office, begs for Spade's help, but sends him on a wild goose chase. When he returns, O'Shaughnessy is waiting in front of Spade's apartment building. Inside Spade's apartment they find Gutman, Wilmer, and Cairo in wait with guns drawn. Gutman presents $10,000 in cash for the falcon, but Spade argues that the police must arrest someone for the murders. During a fight, Spade knocks Wilmer out, and Gutman agrees to give Wilmer to the police.