The Maltese Falcon (BBC Radio Crimes)

By: Dashiell Hammett

Narrated by: Full Cast, Jane Lapotaire, Nickolas Grace, Peter Vaughan, Tom Wilkinson

It’s San Francisco, 1928, and Sam Spade is a wisecracking, womanising Private Investigator. Missing husbands and unfaithful wives are his usual stock-in-trade, but when the beautifully distressed Miss Wonderley calls he gets involved in a dangerous caper most people would run a mile from. Miss Wonderley asks Sam’s partner, Miles Archer, to shadow Floyd Thursby, whom she maintains has kidnapped her sister. But then Archer is shot dead, and Miss Wonderley’s story turns out to be a lie – just like her name, which is actually Brigid O’Shaughnessy. And Miss O’Shaughnessy keeps on lying. But one thing’s for sure: she does know about the Maltese Falcon, an ancient statuette which has attracted more than one interested party. With a bunch of heavies at his elbow and the police on his tail, Sam needs to think fast if he’s to outlive the person who killed his partner...©2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd; (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd

Critic reviews

in this terrific adaptation of Hammett's gangsters-and-molls classic, Tom Wilkinson as the macho, cynical, ruthless private eye Sam Spade is better than Humphrey Bogart (Sue Arnold)

A fun adaptation of a fun book

This is a brisk (even at close to two hours) adaptation and the performers clearly are enjoying themselves too. Hopefully, the show will inspire you to read or listen to the entire book