Mixed Pickles - the Book log 2012

Prequels, authorised sequels, char(acter)-jacking, call 'em what you will, it is hard to think of the practise of taking other writers' creations and giving us "new" adventures as anything other than a semi-legitimized fan-fiction.

("Hold on a second", says the voice of the subconscious,"what about, say, Superman? Where would old Supes be today if only Siegel and Schuster were allowed to write him?". I give my subconscious a playful slap and tell it to mind its own business).

So it was with some nervousness that I approached "The prequel to Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon". I love the original - the pace, the characterisation, the language, the writing. I didn't think that this would measure up, and it doesn't - but only by a barrel of a very snub-nosed automatic.

Gores draws heavily on the imagery in the Bogart movie (which in turn was very closely adapted from the novel) to tell us the story of Sam Spade's first few years as an independent investigation agency. The plot is long, connects the dots nicely, and watches Spade stumble across a gold smuggling racket that will touch on his career for the next few years.

We get the skinny on his relationship with Iva Archer, semi-legitimising the philandering which makes him such an ambiguous figure at the opening of Falcon. And yes, Iva is there, along with Miles Archer, just as unpleasant as we thought he might be, Effie Perrine (fresh out of college but already a dab-hand at rolling a cigarette), and the two flatfoots, Dundy and Polhaus.

Although it is all very satisfying, and there is a kind of pleasure in seeing Spade move towards the moment when Effie Perine tells him that Miss Wonderley is waiting to see him, I am still left with one doubt; if Dashiell Hammett had wanted us to see Sam and the rest before the events of teh Maltese Flacon - well, wouldn't he have written it himself?