2.15 The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet

I know that this is a modern classic, the beginning of a whole genre, and made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart but... eh. I didn't find it particularly interesting, I just read it to finish it. The "twist" was lost on me (DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHO DID IT) and the fact that *gasp* it was the woman, wasn't really that shocking. So what? What did upset me was how the "hero" smacked the women around and no one had a problem with it, nay his "secretary" even liked it. That, my friends, is the truly f'ed up part of the whole novel, not that a woman killed someone. No more hard-boiled detective fiction for me, thanks.