Novelist Joe Gores, a former private eye who has written seventeen novels including the acclaimed Hammett, has written a hard-boiled, old-timey noir "prequel" to Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon called Spade & Archer which is set in San Francisco and fills in the picture of Sam Spade as he sets up his detective agency, hires his tomboyish secretary Effie Perrine and brings in Miles Archer as a partner.