Spade & Archer

Starred review from December 15, 2008
Edgar-winner Gores has not only pulled off the Herculean task of writing a prequel to The Maltese Falcon
but also created a rip-roaring yarn of his own that will please even the crustiest of Hammett devotees. In 1921, Samuel Spade leaves the Continental Detective Agency and opens up his own office. One of his first cases, which the local cops have bungled, involves the robbery of $125,00 worth of gold coins from the San Anselmo
, a passenger ship. Gores cuts forward twice, to 1925 and 1928, along the way setting the iconic Spade off on various adventures throughout the Bay Area. The author, who does a brilliant job of bringing Prohibition-era San Francisco to life with street-level detail and a native's perspective, also captures Hammett's spare style and tone perfectly. The only thing missing is a real femme fatale, but Gores, himself a former PI, gives us a number of young beauties to keep Spade busy until Miss Wonderly finally appears at his door. 5-city author tour.

Starred review from December 1, 2008
Veteran Gores (Glass Tiger, 2006, etc.) spins the straw of an origin story for the firm of Spade & Archer, violently dissolved in the opening chapters of The Maltese Falcon, into storytelling gold.

When he leaves the Continental Detective Agency to hang his own shingle with Effie Perine as his secretary, Sam Spade already knows Miles Archer, who married Spade 's old flame, Iva Nolan, when Spade volunteered for war service. Looking for runaway banking heir Henny Barber, Spade bumps into a much bigger case: the theft of $375,000 in gold from the San Anselmo, Henny 's probable ride to the South Seas. Spade feeds information to Sgt. Dundy and Patrolman Tom Polhaus, then watches as they let the master criminal behind the theft slip through their fingers. He resurfaces in 1925, when insurance man Ray Kentzler secretly hires Spade to establish whether banker Collin Eberhard 's mysterious non-drowning was accident, suicide or murder, and Effie 's friend Penny Chiotras, in an apparently unrelated development, seeks the fabled chest of Bergina. The search for the mastermind won 't close till 1928, when Mai-lin Choi 's search for the money stolen from her unacknowledged (and very well-known) father and Archer 's first case as Spade 's partner culminate in one last treasure hunt.

Along with the obligatory pleasures of watching Spade dealing with familiar supporting characters for the first time, Gores, a far more virtuoso plotter than Hammett, keeps multiple pots boiling furiously while providing a pitch-perfect replica of his master 's voice.

(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from February 15, 2009
Here, in what is clearly a labor of love, Dashiell Hammett expert and veteran Edgar Award-winning novelist Gores breathes new life into the PI firm of Spade & Archer, some 79 years after its initial appearance. This prequel to "The Maltese Falcon" recounts such incidents as the first meeting between Sam Spade and his secretary, Effie Perine, and the sordid history of Iva Archer. Even then a Spade is still a Spade, and Archer is a dumb SOB. Covering a period of seven years, Gores successfully weaves together plot strands that include everything from "Treasure Island" and Sun Yat-sen to union busting. Through it all, Sam manages to glide gracefully from shipboard to boardroom to speakeasy in a wonderful evocation of a lovingly detailed lost San Francisco peopled by the ghosts of Hammett, Humphrey Bogart, and folks who smoke as if their lives depend on it. This homage should both please fans of the original (it has the blessing of the Hammett estate) and alert new readers to what they've been missing. As such, it is highly recommended for all public libraries.Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2008
A prequel to The Maltese Falcon sounds like a bad idea in so many ways, but not when its three-time Edgar winner Goresauthor of the novel Hammett (1975), a former PI himself, and a master of the hard-boiled styleat the helm. The idea is to show us what Sam Spade was up to before he got involved with a black bird and a dame named OShaughnessy. Gores not only creates a compelling backstory for Spade butalso does it so completely in the Hammett style that we suspend disbelief in an instant. Yes, its imitation, but its utterly unlike listening to a fake Sinatra croon. Rather than marveling at how much Gores sounds like Hammett, we forget all about whos doing the talking and let the mood take over. From the clipped dialogue to the emphasis on the geography of San Francisco to the carefully detailed recounting of what a PI does, Gores nails it. Hes equally on the mark with Hammetts characters: not only Spade, whose toughness and savvyare immediately recognizable from what we know of him, but also his secretary, Effie, who plays a larger role here, and his partner, Miles, who more than earns the son of a bitch label Sam giveshim in Falcon. The novels only weak point, plot, is also in keeping with Hammetts fondness for corkscrewy story lines. Here thestory straddles what are really three novellas, united by a Moriarty-like bad guy who just wont go away. But this novel isnt about story; its about getting another chance to walk the streets of San Francisco with the citys most memorable fictional character.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)