Spade and Archer

When Sam Spade gets drawn into the Maltese Falcon case, we know what to expect: straight talk, hard questions, no favours, and no way for anyone to get underneath the protective shell he wears like a second skin. We know that his late partner, Miles Archer, was a son of a bitch; that Spade is sleeping with Archer\'s wife. What we don\'t know is how Spade became who he is. Now SPADE & ARCHER completes the picture. 1921: Spade sets up his own agency in San Francisco and clients quickly start coming through the door. The next seven years will see him dealing with booze runners, water-front thugs, stowaways, banking swindlers, gold smugglers, bumbling cops, and the illegitimate daughter of Sun Yat-sen; with murder, other men\'s mistresses, and long-missing money. He\'ll bring in Archer as a partner, though it was Archer who stole his girl while he was fighting in World War I. He\'ll tangle with a villain who never loses his desire to make Spade pay big for ruining what should\'ve been the perfect crime. And he\'ll fall in love - though it won\'t turn out for the best. It never does with dames...