|
The other famous thing about The Maltese Falcon, is the total misdirection. Really the mystery the detective is trying to solve is "Who killed his partner?". Few readers will keep sight of that. So though the Black Bird is a MacGuffin (a word maybe invented later by Hitchcock?) it's ultimately not even the goal!
The book is available, PD, along with many others by Dashiell Hammet.
I'd have to think a bit about Catalyst Characters that only exist to jump start a story.
|