What do you think?
Rate this book
The Lady in the Lake
A brand-new BBC Radio full-cast dramatization by Stephen Wyatt of a classic Raymond Chandler mystery featuring private eye Philip Marlowe.
Derace Kingsley’s wife ran away to Mexico to get a quickie divorce and marry a Casanova-wannabe named Chris Lavery. Or so the note she left her husband insisted. Trouble is, when Philip Marlowe asks Lavery about it, he denies everything and sends the private investigator packing with a flea lodged firmly in his ear. But when Marlowe next encounters Lavery, he’s denying nothing – on account of the two bullet holes in his heart. Now Marlowe’s on the trail of a killer, who leads him out of smoggy L.A. all the way to a murky mountain lake.
It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 12 February 2011.
Derace Kingsley’s wife ran away to Mexico to get a quickie divorce and marry a Casanova-wannabe named Chris Lavery. Or so the note she left her husband insisted. Trouble is, when Philip Marlowe asks Lavery about it, he denies everything and sends the private investigator packing with a flea lodged firmly in his ear. But when Marlowe next encounters Lavery, he’s denying nothing – on account of the two bullet holes in his heart. Now Marlowe’s on the trail of a killer, who leads him out of smoggy L.A. all the way to a murky mountain lake.
It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 12 February 2011.
2 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2011
4 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Wyatt
56 books6 followersStephen Wyatt was educated at Latymer Upper School and then Clare College, Cambridge. After a brief spell as Lecturer in Drama at Glasgow University, he began his career as a freelance playwright in 1975 as writer/researcher with the Belgrade Theatre Coventry in Education team.
His subsequent young people's theatre work includes The Magic Cabbage (Unicorn 1978), Monster (York Theatre Royal 1979) and The Witch of Wapping (Half Moon 1980).
In 1982 and 1983 he was Resident Writer with the Bubble Theatre for whom he wrote Glitterballs and The Rogue's Progress.
Other theatre work includes After Shave (Apollo Theatre 1978), R.I.P Maria Callas (Edinburgh Festival / Hen and Chickens 1992), A working woman (from Zola's L'Assommoir) (West Yorkshire Playhouse 1992) and The Standard Bearer (Man in the Moon 2001). He also collaborated with Jeff Clarke on The Burglar's Opera for Opera della Luna (2004) "stolen from an idea by W. S. Gilbert with music nicked from Sir Arthur Sullivan".
His first work for television was Claws, filmed by the BBC in 1987, starring Simon Jones and Brenda Blethyn. Wyatt then went on to write two scripts for the science fiction series Doctor Who — these were Paradise Towers and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Both of those serials featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. His other television credits include scripts for The House of Eliott and Casualty.
He has worked for BBC Radio since 1985 as both an adapter and an original playwright.
His subsequent young people's theatre work includes The Magic Cabbage (Unicorn 1978), Monster (York Theatre Royal 1979) and The Witch of Wapping (Half Moon 1980).
In 1982 and 1983 he was Resident Writer with the Bubble Theatre for whom he wrote Glitterballs and The Rogue's Progress.
Other theatre work includes After Shave (Apollo Theatre 1978), R.I.P Maria Callas (Edinburgh Festival / Hen and Chickens 1992), A working woman (from Zola's L'Assommoir) (West Yorkshire Playhouse 1992) and The Standard Bearer (Man in the Moon 2001). He also collaborated with Jeff Clarke on The Burglar's Opera for Opera della Luna (2004) "stolen from an idea by W. S. Gilbert with music nicked from Sir Arthur Sullivan".
His first work for television was Claws, filmed by the BBC in 1987, starring Simon Jones and Brenda Blethyn. Wyatt then went on to write two scripts for the science fiction series Doctor Who — these were Paradise Towers and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Both of those serials featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. His other television credits include scripts for The House of Eliott and Casualty.
He has worked for BBC Radio since 1985 as both an adapter and an original playwright.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 3, 2017
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler.
I picked up this CD at my public library not realizing it was a drama/play with a cast of characters/actors. It was fabulous...love every moment.
This was Philip Marlowe at his best and Raymond Chandler as the author sat his zenith. I can't recommend it highly enough and try to get the play/drama. It's excellent, not a boring moment in the play.
I picked up this CD at my public library not realizing it was a drama/play with a cast of characters/actors. It was fabulous...love every moment.
This was Philip Marlowe at his best and Raymond Chandler as the author sat his zenith. I can't recommend it highly enough and try to get the play/drama. It's excellent, not a boring moment in the play.
April 1, 2024
Good pace and great aesthetics, loved the voice acting and narration, the story was ok.
September 4, 2018
Marlowe complains in this one that there are too many women… not his usual complaint. Personally, I’d argue there are too many Als.
He’s been hired to find a missing wife. Crystal Kingsley was staying at their cabin by the lake but sent a telegram to say she was marrying Lavery, a gigolo well known for being with women, but not generally marrying them. Waiting outside Lavery’s house, Marlowe notices a neighbour watching him, and then he’s chased off by a Bay City cop, Al Degamo. The cops says Dr Almore doesn’t like visitors, especially after his wife died eighteen months ago. Marlowe thinks that’s an odd thing for a cop to say.
Lavery denies being engaged to Crystal and says he hasn’t seen her for months, so Marlowe heads for the lake cabin. When he gets there, the caretaker says his wife is missing, too. He had an affair with Crystal and Muriel left him, leaving a note. She’s left him before, he’s not really worried.
But they find her body in the lake. Her car and some of her stuff is missing but left in a sawmill nearby. The husband is arrested. The local sheriff is pretty straight and when he and Marlowe search the cabin they find a necklace in the sugar tin, engraved ‘from Al’ when her husband’s name is Bill.
The next body Marlowe finds is Lavery in the shower. [I think he gets up to four bodies in this case… again, he’s the man that things happen to…]
By the time he wraps it all up he’s been coshed, drugged, set up a few times and of course, worked it all out.
Info gained via missing scenes from the book are ‘told’ to Marlowe by other characters to cut down the run time but it still works.
4 stars
He’s been hired to find a missing wife. Crystal Kingsley was staying at their cabin by the lake but sent a telegram to say she was marrying Lavery, a gigolo well known for being with women, but not generally marrying them. Waiting outside Lavery’s house, Marlowe notices a neighbour watching him, and then he’s chased off by a Bay City cop, Al Degamo. The cops says Dr Almore doesn’t like visitors, especially after his wife died eighteen months ago. Marlowe thinks that’s an odd thing for a cop to say.
Lavery denies being engaged to Crystal and says he hasn’t seen her for months, so Marlowe heads for the lake cabin. When he gets there, the caretaker says his wife is missing, too. He had an affair with Crystal and Muriel left him, leaving a note. She’s left him before, he’s not really worried.
But they find her body in the lake. Her car and some of her stuff is missing but left in a sawmill nearby. The husband is arrested. The local sheriff is pretty straight and when he and Marlowe search the cabin they find a necklace in the sugar tin, engraved ‘from Al’ when her husband’s name is Bill.
The next body Marlowe finds is Lavery in the shower. [I think he gets up to four bodies in this case… again, he’s the man that things happen to…]
By the time he wraps it all up he’s been coshed, drugged, set up a few times and of course, worked it all out.
Info gained via missing scenes from the book are ‘told’ to Marlowe by other characters to cut down the run time but it still works.
4 stars
May 15, 2017
I've been familiar with Chandler's work for a long time, since childhood actually, but I've never read him. He was my dad's favourite author but instead of recommending him to me, dad chose to give me Rex Stout, and I'm very grateful. So. When I saw this audio dramatization I played it ASAP. But. blah. It wasn't the right time for me, I guess. After listening for so long to Poirot's dramatizations, I've grown a bit... sophisticated, hehe. So this audiobook hit me hard in the face, er, ear. The main hero - a PI - was just another hard man, doing hard job. Plainly boring. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the finale scene, the murderer, etc. But I just chose the wrong time to listen to it.
October 25, 2015
A delicious treat for several reasons. 1. It is a mystery set in the general Southern Ca. area, primarily LA. Thus I have the visuals. 2. I listened to the audio version with a whole cast and sound effects included. 3. I like time travel back to old times. This was written in the 1940's and could well have been broadcast on the radio. 4. It was an engaging story, not the depressing tomes I have been reading of late. 5. And this is my favorite element in the book. The word "davenport" was used to describe a sofa/couch. Wow! Haven't heard that word in ages.
May 9, 2014
Good story, but I didn't find it as entertaining as The Big Sleep, though it may have been the audio book version I listened to. It was abridged and lacked much of the colorful language of the full edition of The Big Sleep.
It's a good story though and kept me interested. The time period is interesting to hear about now, over 70 years later.
It's a good story though and kept me interested. The time period is interesting to hear about now, over 70 years later.
June 17, 2018
47th in CWA Top 100 crime books
June 5, 2020
Yep, I'm a Raymond Chandler fan. I need to watch this movie now.
Update: The movie is terrible.
Update: The movie is terrible.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews