Major Characters in the Novel
Sam Spade
Cool and strong, grinning his way through his middle thirties, this cagy private detective becomes caught in a chase for the falcon after someone guns down his partner, Miles Archer, in an alley. Spade's personal code drives him to avenge the murder—though whether from honor or just good business is for readers to decide.
Miles Archer
Ten years older than Sam Spade and none too bright, Spade's lecherous partner has never noticed his wife's affair. He misses the holes in an attractive new client's story, too, and pays dearly for it.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy (aka Miss Wonderly)
The consummate femme fatale, Brigid is beautiful, manipulative, and dangerous. A compulsive liar, she tries to use her feminine wiles to charm men into believing what she says and doing what she wants.
Effie Perine
Sam Spade's secretary is devoted and trustworthy, if perhaps a little too trusting of Brigid. After Effie guards a dead body for her employer, Spade compliments her loyalty and grit by saying, “You're a damned good man, sister.”
Joel Cairo
A polished but imperfect crook, Cairo first offers Spade money for the falcon, then holds him at gunpoint—twice—while searching his office.
Casper Gutman
Cairo's corpulent employer describes himself as a man not “easily discouraged when he wants something.” His obsession has led him on a 17-year search for the falcon.
Wilmer
Gutman's sensitive young gunman has a smart mouth, but not much brain. As Spade observes, “The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.”
“His fingers tore the wad apart and then he had the foot-high figure of a bird, black as coal and shiny where its polish was not dulled by wood-dust and fragments of excelsior.”
-from The Maltese Falcon
