The Maltese Falcon

Knowing that the book is a classic really hinders my review in a way. About halfway through the Maltese Falcon i was could not help but think about why its considered so great. The book has unlikable and scummy characters who are hard to root for and as i neared the last few pages became even more disappointed. Maybe the film is better and allows for more character development but the old detective story is just plain bland. We have had several decades of similarly paced books based on detectives and maybe this was groundbreaking at the time. I just did not have a great time with it in the present.