In classic noir tradition, English Professor Karen Pelletier gains a client when a Rottweiler named Trouble and his famous private-eye-novelist owner walk through her door. The next thing you know, the Enfield library is missing a truckload of its treasures. Then a thief is found dead in the stacks, his neck broken. With a real private eye on the case, the hunt is on-for the manuscript of Hammett's famous novel, The Maltese Falcon; for the missing books; and for potential murder suspects.