Turtledove
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While the story is not [[alternate history]], it is built on a "what if" question: What if Sam Spade, rather than his partner, Miles Archer, was murdered? As is typical, Turtledove makes liberal use of puns, as Miles Archer becomes [[Miles Bowman]], and Sam Spade is [[Tom Trencher]].
 
While the story is not [[alternate history]], it is built on a "what if" question: What if Sam Spade, rather than his partner, Miles Archer, was murdered? As is typical, Turtledove makes liberal use of puns, as Miles Archer becomes [[Miles Bowman]], and Sam Spade is [[Tom Trencher]].
   
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==See also==
==Similar Turtledove works==
 
In ''[[A Different Flesh]]'' and "[[The Yorkshire Mammoth]]", the [[woolly mammoth]] survived to the present day and became an accepted part of culture and industry.
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*''[[A Different Flesh]]'', where [[hairy elephant|woolly mammoths]] are common pack animals in 18th-century [[Federated Commonwealths of America|America]].
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*"[[The Yorkshire Mammoth]]", where [[Woolly mammoth (The Yorkshire Mammoth)|woolly mammoths]] are common work animals in 20th-century [[england (The Yorkshire Mammoth)|England]].
 
In "[[Running of the Bulls]]" (a pastiche of ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'') and the [[Chicxulub Asteroid Missed Stories]] (including "[[The Quest for the Great Grey Mossy]]", a pastiche of ''[[Moby-Dick]]''), certain types of dinosaurs survived to the age of civilization.
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*"[[Running of the Bulls]]," a pastiche of ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'', where certain dinosaur genera survived to an age of modernity.
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*[[Chicxulub Asteroid Missed Stories]] (including "[[The Quest for the Great Grey Mossy]]", a pastiche of ''[[Moby-Dick]]''), another dinosaurs-in-the age-of-civilization timeline.
 
"[[The Scarlet Band]]" (set in the [[Atlantis Series]]) is a pastiche of another famous piece of detective literature, namely [[Sherlock Holmes]].
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*"[[The Scarlet Band]]" (set in the [[Atlantis Series]]), a pastiche of the detective [[Sherlock Holmes]].
 
 
{{The Maltese Elephant}}
 
{{The Maltese Elephant}}
 
{{Counting Up, Counting Down}}
 
{{Counting Up, Counting Down}}
 
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maltese Elephant, The}}
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maltese Elephant, The}}
 
[[Category:The Maltese Elephant|*]]
 
[[Category:The Maltese Elephant|*]]

Revision as of 07:30, 21 October 2020

"The Maltese Elephant"  
Analog Aug1995
Author Harry Turtledove
First Appearance Analog
Collected Counting Up, Counting Down
Illustrator George H. Krauter
Genre(s) Detective story, parody
Publication date August, 1995

For the fictional film by the same title which was mentioned in passing in The Grapple, see The Maltese Elephant (Southern Victory Film).

"The Maltese Elephant" is Harry Turtledove's pastiche of The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. It follows the same basic plot of Hammett's novel, only is in short story form and the "macguffin" is a living, breathing elephant rather than a falcon statue. It was first published in Analog in August 1995 and was reprinted in the Harry Turtledove book of short stories, Counting Up, Counting Down.

While the story is not alternate history, it is built on a "what if" question: What if Sam Spade, rather than his partner, Miles Archer, was murdered? As is typical, Turtledove makes liberal use of puns, as Miles Archer becomes Miles Bowman, and Sam Spade is Tom Trencher.

See also