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Champaign Public Library »
Address: 200 W. Green St Champaign, IL 61820
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Still haven’t decoded the secret to passing finals? This week, buzz invites you to take part in another mystery: if you wish to be a sleuth, read The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet and put your investigative skills to work. Scour the pages of this mystery novel and get entangled in a web of lies, death, and greed; but be careful not to get sidetracked from the mission — to prick the priceless Maltese Falcon from criminal hands. Sounds easy? Not as you may think — Kristina Honrner, adult services manager of the Champaign Public Library and assistant of the Big Read program says, “It is really hard to tell who is going to be the good guy and bad guy.”

The 1930s mystery novel features Sam Spade, a shady, charismatic detective commissioned to assist the beautiful Miss Wonderly. Far from innocent, Miss Wonderly, whose real name later surfaces, is a compulsive liar — which brings about further twists in the thrilling plot. Though seemingly blinded with lust for Brigid, Spade enters in a race to attain the priceless Falcon. Honrner calls The Maltese Falcon a wonderful suspenseful mystery with classic dialogue, “certainly one of the great classics.”

From March 28 to April 30, the Champaign Public Library, partnered with Urbana Free Library and local schools, is making The Maltese Falcon the Big Read. In 2008, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) granted the Champaign-Urbana Big Read program $12,000 funding to promote literacy and “encourage communities to share a book.” Honrner says, “It is great to have unity in community over a shared piece of literature,” and the Big Read “opens up opportunity for people to get together at other [community] events.”

You can join other tenacious private eyes at book discussions held at the Champaign Library from April 9 to 28. If you wish to get hands-on, police officers Michael Black and David Case will recreate the Maltese Falcon crime scene at 7 p.m. March 30. In addition, Charleston Alley Theater Company is hosting a Maltese Falcon radio play on at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 5. That’s not all, detective: the CU Big Read is looking for a picture to use in their promotion; if you wish to be considered, e-mail a picture of yourself or your family reading The Maltese Falcon to cufalcon@gmail.com or drop it off at Champaign Library’s information desk. See The Maltese Falcon’s classic 1941 film at the Virginia Theater at 7 p.m., Thursday April 30. I’ve solved the mystery, can you?