The Maltese Falcon

A 1930 detective novel by Dashiell Hammett featuring private investigator Sam Spade, widely considered a foundational work of hard-boiled crime fiction.

The story follows Spade's pursuit of a jewel-encrusted statuette—the falcon of the title—through a web of double-crosses and murders.

The 1941 film adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart became a classic of American cinema.

The phrase has come to represent any object of obsessive pursuit that may prove worthless or illusory: Everyone's chasing their own Maltese falcon.