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. (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)