Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Maltese Falcon | 1930 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 2 | Return of the Maltese Falcon | 2026 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
The Detective Sam Spade series begins with one of the most famous mystery novels ever written. Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1930) introduced private eye Sam Spade, a San Francisco detective hired to find a missing person who gets pulled into a deadly hunt for a priceless statuette. The novel defined the hard-boiled detective genre and was adapted into the classic 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart.
Nearly a century later, Max Allan Collins wrote Return of the Maltese Falcon (2026), an authorized continuation of Sam Spade’s story. Collins, known for his work on the Nathan Heller series and Dick Tracy comic strip, brings his deep knowledge of crime fiction history to the character. The new novel picks up Spade’s story and gives readers a chance to spend time with one of the genre’s most iconic figures once again.