Book review: Spade And Archer by Joe Gores

Spade And Archer
Joe Gores
Hachette

Review: Suzan Ryan

THE prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s crime classic, The Maltese Falcon, Spade and Archer provides noir lovers with detailed character studies revealing how Sam Spade, one of the world’s most iconic detectives, became the hard-boiled, straight-shooting and canny operator we know and love.

Gores creates, seemingly effortlessly, an enthralling and atmospheric recreation of San Francisco in the 1920s—where bootleg booze, broads, gold smugglers, waterfront thugs and grizzled cops vie for attention in a series of cases delivered to the PI’s front door.

But the book also reveals the history behind the famous Spade and Archer feud, introducing the two to their uneasy business partnership and secretly shared affections of Spade’s former lover, Iva—now Archer’s wife.

However, even more fascinating is the story of a courtship between Spade and a female client, and its devastating conclusion, which destroyed the hopes and heart of the Spade we later come to know. If you’re a fan of The Maltese Falcon, or noir mysteries in general, this book is definitely for you.

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