“It has been an inspiration to authors and filmmakers, actors and illustrators and musicians — and to me, for the entire 50-plus years I’ve been a novelist," Collins said in a statement. "Not that writing about the world Hammett created, and those immortal, sometimes immoral characters isn’t challenging — Hammett’s best mystery also happens to be one of the greatest American novels, period.”
When copyright protection ends for a book, anyone is free to use the characters and story line. After F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" entered the public domain, in 2021, new creations included a Tony-winning musical of the same name and a prequel novel, "Nick," by Michael Farris Smith.
According to Hard Case Crime, Collins’ new book will bring back Spade and Joel Cairo among other Hammett characters, and “a mysterious new femme fatale.” Collins, whose “Road to Perdition” was adapted into a film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, has a long history of working with famous literary detectives. He took over the Dick Tracy comic strip in the late 1970s after creator Chester Gould retired, and he was later authorized to continue Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer series.
“I’m something of an old hand at walking in the shoes of the giants who came before, though I never claim to filling them,” Collins told The Associated Press.
Various authorized Spade projects have been released, including a 2009 prequel, Joe Gores' “Spade & Archer,” a novel about Spade and his professional partner, Miles Archer. Spade was featured this year in an AMC miniseries, “Monsieur Spade,” starring Clive Owen in a sequel that finds the detective retired and living in the South of France.