Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in the movie version of The Maltese Falcon
Sam Spade is back thanks to veteran mystery writer Joe Gores.
Gores took on the daunting task of writing a prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and the result, Spade & Archer is now out.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of writers taking on another author’s characters – it just doesn’t sit right with me. But if anyone was going to resurrect Sam Spade, it should be Gores. Having used Hammett as the hero of his 16 detective novels, Gores has studied the man. Besides he got the seal of approval from Hammett’s daughter.
The reviews I’ve read say that Gores has done pretty well in keeping true to Hammett’s style right-down to the old-school detective story way of over-describing the details of a character.
The Maltese Falcon is on my “to read” list so I won’t be reading Spade & Archer any time soon as I want to read the former first. But if you are a die-hard Sam Spade fan, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts and even if you will read a non-Hammett created prequel.