This will sound dim but I was struck how faithful the 1940 film adaptation was to this - the structure, dialogue, characters. It really got it - sometimes cut and pasted. And why not? The original book is good - it was silly they changed it.
This has aged well in part because Sam Spade is such a prick - no Philip Marlowe like honor for him, he mostly tracks down the killer of his partner because it's bad for business. He's cynical and full of great lines.
I do get confused by the plot of this, always have - there's lots of talk about the action of people we don't see like Flloyd Thursby and the sea captain.
But the characters we do meet are fantastic - Spade of course but also the partner's cheating wife, Gutman, Joel Cairo, Wilfred, Bridget O'Shaugnessy (who Spade makes take her clothes off for a search).
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