One almost has to be a Pinkerton detective to unravel the double crosses and mysteries surrounding the falcon statue in Owen Fitzstephen's Hammett Unwritten--or is it Gordon McAlpine's? In fact, isn't Fitzstephen a character from Dashiell Hammett's The Dain Curse (though his name was spelled Fitzstephan)?
Leaping around in time, the novel explores why Hammett never wrote another novel after The Thin Man. As he's putting the final touches on that book, he's visited by Moira O'Shea, on whom he based Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the femme fatale of The Maltese Falcon. She tells him the black bird sitting on his desk is made of a magical stone that grants the owner's wishes, and is thus the reason for Hammett's success.
When Hammett scoffs at this notion, O'Shea convinces him that the only way to prove the legend wrong is to give her the statue--and he promptly develops an impenetrable writer's block. Hammett searches for the bird, but O'Shea seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Could the mythology surrounding the falcon be true? Or is O'Shea exacting psychological revenge?
Readers may sometimes feel that Gordon McAlpine is messing with their heads, but it's fun to go along with Hammett as he investigates the legend. Fans of Hammett's work--and The Maltese Falcon in particular--should enjoy the many references to his work and the novel's blending of fact and fiction. In the end, it almost doesn't matter what's true, only that it's a story well told. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, writer/editor blogging at Pop Culture Nerd