Der Malteser Falke

By: Dashiell Hammett

Narrated by: Wiglaf Droste

Die attraktive Brigid bittet Privatdetektiv Sam Spade und seinen Partner Archer um Hilfe, weil sie Angst vor einem Mann namens Thursby hat. Am selben Abend wird Archer umgebracht, und schon bald taucht auch Thursby als Leiche auf. Spade beginnt ein Verhältnis mit Brigid, obwohl er weiß, dass sie nicht ehrlich zu ihm ist. Er erfährt, dass sie und nicht nur sie hinter einer wertvollen Skulptur aus dem 16. Jahrhundert her ist: dem Malteser Falken.
Der Klassiker des Kriminalromans.©1974 Diogenes (P)1974 Diogenes

Critic reviews

Der Kriminalroman ist seit Dashiell Hammett eine literarische Gattung, deren Geschichte mit seinem Namen beginnt.
--Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

excellent falcon -- in german

the german reader of this book, wyclaf droste, is quite famous in his own right as a reader in public of pithy and caustically humorous texts in german, so hearing him doing hammett, in ranslation, of course, gives the book a certain edge, which i found quite invigorating.but then along comes gutman, the fat levantine gangster who is after the bird here, and he has this obsequious way of addressing spade, the detective, as "sir", which is unusual in an american context, but not automatically indicative of sexual perversity. the german translator replaced the original form of address with a "mein lieber", or "my dear (fellow)" which gets to be a bit grating, after a while. we are not surprised to hear that gutman's humiliated UTAH=an gunsel later kills him. the falcon's world emerges as surprisingly modern, but also small-scale. THE THIN MAN read by william de fries is, altogether, a more satisfying read, and also, it's in english. both books are fun ways of reconnecting with hammett, whom readers, just reading the books by themselves, might not quite experience the same way.