The Maltese Falcon (Dashiell Hammett, 1929)

From a similar vein, and the same collection, as Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon is another hard-boiled early-20th Century detective crime novel. Another short book, this one I took with me on the ferry to Bruges and polished it off over a handful of days. It's a good read and it held my attention for the most part, but towards the end I lost interest for some reason. The writing is great, and the characters are interesting - Sam Spade (a name I know from the Without a Trace TV series, where Samantha is a young blonde woman - here, the original Spade is a grumpy old man) is not your typical hero, and the cast of characters he meets are a colourful bunch, although the femme fatale, Brigid, proved a mite irritating as her lies went on and on - but the plot was a bit bland as it neared it's conclusion. Along the way, the mystery of why Spade has been employed as PI, how his partner is murdered, and what exactly the Maltese Falcon is, prove enthralling, but once the revelations come out I felt there was no where really to go. I'd be intrigued to see the movie version from 1941 as it's supposed to be classic noir, otherwise this helped to keep seasickness (and boredom) at bay on the North Sea.