Fans of this book will see an entirely different kind of detective in debonair Nick Charles, the hero of Hammett's next and last novel, The Thin Man (1934).

While Sam Spade is a rugged individualist, Hammett's previous detective character, The Continental Op, was a pudgy, nameless operative of the Continental Detective Agency. He is the protagonist of two earlier novels, Red Harvest and The Dain Curse, both published in 1929.

Brian Lawson's novel Chasing Sam Spade (2002), published by Booklocker Press, presents a man who goes to San Francisco to investigate the murder of his father, only to become wrapped up in a web of intrigue with clues taken from Hammett's novel. The city's atmosphere plays a strong role.

The writer who is most often associated with Hammett is Raymond Chandler, whose stories of Los Angeles detective Phillip Marlowe have a sense of...