Dashiell Hammett published The Maltese Falcon in San Francisco, California, introducing private detective Sam Spade and establishing the hard-boiled detective novel as a major American literary form. Unlike the scientific evidence-gathering tradition of Conan Doyle, Hammett's detective worked through social cunning, physical surveillance, and the close reading of human behaviour in a corrupt urban world. The novel drew directly on Hammett's years as a Pinkerton detective conducting real criminal investigations across American cities.

The Maltese Falcon transformed the detective novel from a puzzle about physical evidence into a moral and social investigation of corruption. Hammett's influence on American literature was enormous — Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and countless successors built on his foundation. His work also influenced film noir, American poetry of urban disillusionment, and critical theory on the detective form as social critique. Hammett's own later persecution by HUAC connected his literary work directly to the politics of evidence and accusation.