# The Maltese Falcon — Character guide

> Key figures in The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett.

- [Sam Spade](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/sam_spade.md): Spade runs a shabby office with a loyal secretary and a partner he doesn't much like, working angles as coolly as he rolls cigarettes. When his partner is shot and a beautiful client's story keeps shifting, his professio
- [Brigid O'Shaughnessy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/brigid_oshaughnessy.md): She arrives in Spade's office as Miss Wonderly, all timid smiles and unfinished sentences, and keeps changing her name and her story as the bodies pile up. Her helplessness is a performance, and Spade knows it, yet he ke
- [Casper Gutman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/casper_gutman.md): Gutman holds court from a padded rocking chair, purring out confessions and flattery while his boy Wilmer does the ugly work. He is candid, almost genial, about murder and betrayal—and utterly single-minded about the bla
- [Joel Cairo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/joel_cairo.md): Cairo walks into Spade's office with a cane, a gardenia, and a story about a missing enameled bird, and his nerve frays the moment things go wrong. He schemes alongside Gutman while nursing his own claim, and his shrill 
- [Wilmer Cook](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/wilmer_cook.md): Wilmer trails targets, waits outside hotels, and pulls the trigger when Gutman gives the word—then sulks when Spade treats him like a child. He is fiercely loyal to the fat man who keeps him close, but his youth and his 
- [Effie Perine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/effie_perine.md): Effie announces clients, teases her boss, and keeps the agency running while Spade chases the falcon through San Francisco's fog. She is loyal to Spade without being blind to him, and her easy banter with him is one of t
- [Miles Archer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/miles_archer.md): Spade's partner in the detective firm, a man whose stakeout ends in gunfire and turns a missing-person case into a murder investigation.
- [Iva Archer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/iva_archer.md): Miles Archer's widow and Spade's former lover.
- [Tom Polhaus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/tom_polhaus.md): A big, friendly police sergeant who works the Archer murder case and treats Spade with an ease his lieutenant clearly doesn't share.
- [Lieutenant Dundy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/dundy.md): A hard-eyed police lieutenant who reads Spade as a suspect first and a colleague never, turning every interview into a contest of nerve.
- [Floyd Thursby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/floyd_thursby.md): Brigid's former partner, found murdered after Archer's death.
- [Sid Wise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/sid_wise.md): Spade's friend and attorney who provides legal advice.
- [District Attorney Bryan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/bryan.md): District attorney who questions Spade about the murders.
- [Luke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/luke.md): Night watchman at Spade's building who reports a disturbance.
- [Dixie Monahan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters/dixie_monahan.md): Gambler who originally owned the Maltese Falcon, mentioned as deceased.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_maltese_falcon_se/characters