The Big Read brings classic mystery to county readers

Until the 1920s, mysteries tended to be proper affairs, populated by well-dressed sleuths who smoked pipes, wore mustaches and were almost playful about the task of detection.

Then Dashiell Hammett came along and changed their elementary design.

"Hammett took murder out of the Venetian vase and dropped it into the alley," wrote Raymond Chandler, Hammett's contemporary.

Now, 80 years after Hammett began publishing his masterpiece as a pulp magazine serial, Sno-Isle Libraries and the Everett Public Library are celebrating the former Washington resident by using "The Maltese Falcon" for a community read in May.

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program that promotes literature. Locally, organizers plan to use Hammett's edgy mystery to bring together residents of Snohomish and Island counties.

"We knew we wanted to do something a little different, and we also knew we wanted something we could build programs around," said Terry Beck, manager of adult and teen services for Sno-Isle Libraries. "It's really more than just the book."

The month includes book discussions, screenings of Humphrey Bogart movies and a visit from Hammett's granddaughter.

Of course, the book choice also needed to be a good read. Again, "The Maltese Falcon" made sense.

"It's accessible on so many levels," Julie Rivett, Hammett's granddaughter, said. "It's accessible as a criminal fiction novel. It's accessible as literature. And it's also now a very prominent piece of American culture."

The muscular novel focuses on Sam Spade, a hardboiled private eye. When he hears about the murder of his partner, he scowls at the phone. He was sleeping with the guy's wife and becomes a suspect.

Hammett has been lauded for creating those flesh-and-blood characters by drawing on his own life.

Born in Maryland, the author worked in Spokane for Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, then moved to San Francisco, the city that provides a backdrop for "The Maltese Falcon."

He gave the book an edge, with random beatings, street slang and a steady sexual undercurrent.

"I don't think that concerned us," Beck said. "We felt comfortable with the NEA and Arts Midwest collaboration (the organizations that suggested possible books). We knew that if it made that list, it was definitely something for us to consider."

Hammett left a personal stamp on his books -- his first name was Samuel, just like Spade's -- and gave the world a genuine mystery upon his death. He stopped publishing novels in 1934, after "The Thin Man," then his greatest commercial success, saw print. He died in 1961 at age 66.

Rivett, a California resident who will visit Everett on May 2 and Snohomish on May 3, said her grandfather was trying to move away from mysteries but couldn't meet his own standards.

"He didn't stop writing," Rivett said. "He stopped finishing."

Not that he needed to continue. His body of work, five novels and a few dozen short stories, already had made its mark.

"When you do something and you do it well," Beck said, "it resonates."

Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com.



Take part in the Big Read

All events take place at the respective city's library.

Julie Rivett: Speaking on her grandfather's legacy: 2 p.m. May 2, Everett, and 1 p.m. May 3, Snohomish

"The Maltese Falcon": screening hosted by film critic Richard Jameson: 2 p.m. May 3, Mukilteo; 2 p.m. May 9, Freeland; 1:30 p.m. May 17, Marysville

"Scene of the Crime": hosted by local police forensic experts: 11 a.m. May 23, Lynnwood; 2 p.m. May 23, Everett

For the full calendar of events, visit the activities section at www.sno-isle.org/cr/bigread.

Watch the Sunday Good Life through May for a list of the week's Big Read activities.