“Everybody Has Something to Conceal”

Seven months after news broke that author Max Allan Collins was composing a sequel to The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett’s genre-defining 1930 private-eye novel, the cover art for Collins’ Return of the Maltese Falcon has been released by Hard Case Crime.

This book is scheduled for publication in January 2026.

A plot synopsis says that Return “brings closure to this crime classic, reuniting all the surviving members of the original cast alongside femme fatales, crooked collectors, and greedy gangsters for one more thrilling, deadly chase through the streets, wharves, morgues, bars, and back alleys of 1920s San Francisco—and finally answers the question, Whatever became of the Maltese falcon …?”