Sam Spade

Sam Spade is one of the most famous literary detectives of the 20th century, cementing his legacy in Dashiell Hammett's masterpiece, 'The Maltese Falcon.' Unlike the polite, intellectual sleuths of British fiction, Spade is ruthlessly pragmatic, physically imposing, and entirely unsentimental—a 'blond satan' who operates by his own strict, if ambiguous, code of honor in a world composed entirely of liars and thieves. His willingness to sacrifice everything, including the woman he loves, for a professional code changed the trajectory of American crime fiction forever.