Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business

by Raymond Chandler, Cris Peter (colorist), Arvind Ethan David

The hard-boiled world of Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye, comes to vivid life in this brilliant graphic novel adaptation of the classic noir tale.

In 1940s Los Angeles, a sour-faced millionaire hires Philip Marlowe, a hard-boiled, harder-drinking detective, to scare off a suspected gold digger who has got her claws into his even wealthier stepson. Marlowe takes the case but quickly discovers that Harriett Huntress isn’t just after she’s playing a long, cold game of revenge…  

Marlowe forms an alliance with George, the client's chauffeur-cum-bodyguard-cum-fixer. George is a black, Dartmouth educated veteran with a sniper’s skills and his own agenda, and the two uneasy allies find themselves on the wrong end of a brace of hired killers and an enigmatic casino boss. . . It rapidly becomes clear that Marlowe, sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, is just asking for trouble. But that’s the thing. Trouble is his business.

Genres: Mystery, Graphic Novels, Comics, Noir, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Crime

128 pages, Hardcover

Published May 20, 2025

About the author

Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in Black Mask, a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, The Big Sleep, was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but Playback have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other Black Mask writers. The protagonist of his novels, Philip Marlowe, like Hammett's Sam Spade, is considered by some to be synonymous with "private detective". Both were played in films by Humphrey Bogart, whom many consider to be the quintessential Marlowe.

The Big Sleep placed second on the Crime Writers Association poll of the 100 best crime novels; Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Lady in the Lake (1943) and The Long Goodbye (1953) also made the list. The latter novel was praised in an anthology of American crime stories as "arguably the first book since Hammett's The Glass Key, published more than twenty years earlier, to qualify as a serious and significant mainstream novel that just happened to possess elements of mystery". Chandler was also a perceptive critic of detective fiction; his "The Simple Art of Murder" is the canonical essay in the field. In it he wrote: "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
Parker wrote that, with Marlowe, "Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious—an innocent who knows better, a Romantic who is tough enough to sustain Romanticism in a world that has seen the eternal footman hold its coat and snicker. Living at the end of the Far West, where the American dream ran out of room, no hero has ever been more congruent with his landscape. Chandler had the right hero in the right place, and engaged him in the consideration of good and evil at precisely the time when our central certainty of good no longer held."

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I enjoyed reading one of Raymond Chandler's stories ( a novelette, actually) in graphic novel form. The colors used show a lot of darkness, appropriate for a noir detective story.
PI Philip Marlowe is the main character and we see most of the story from his perspective. But I particularly liked the creators of this graphic novel bringing to life the character of George Hasterman, an African American veteran of WWII. Marlowe and George work together as allies but George is a man with his own agenda.
Marlowe, by the way, is a WWII vet, as well, in "France, 1942." What he was doing in France in 1942, I don't know, as D-Day didn't happen until 1944!
A good point is made in the Foreword, a point I agree with. Plot is secondary to style for Chandler. He's creating a feeling, for instance, in describing his setting of Los Angeles in the 1940s.
It would be interesting to go back to the source, the original story published in 1950, so as to compare it with the graphic novel, which was published in 2025.

[Prospero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every so often, an adaptation comes along that doesn’t merely trade on the greatness of the original, but adds something meaningful of its own—something specific to the medium in which it’s made. The graphic novel adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business is one of those rare successes.

One of its most interesting achievements is how the shift to the graphic novel form subtly changes perspective. Chandler’s prose places us squarely inside Philip Marlowe’s first-person consciousness. Here, the visual medium necessarily moves us toward a more third-person vantage point. Yet rather than flattening Marlowe’s inner life, the adaptation preserves it—and, in some ways, enriches it—by adding layers of context through visual implication, symbolism, and allusion to bring 1940s LA to life as a character. Meaning is often conveyed not through exposition, but through what is shown, framed, or left unsaid.

This expansion of storytelling possibilities recalls the way works like Alan Moore’s Watchmen pushed the boundaries of what the graphic novel could do as a serious narrative form. The result is a version of Marlowe’s world that feels broader and more textured, illuminating new corners of both the characters and the noir universe they inhabit.

The adaptation also offers thoughtful commentary on the social mores of its era, revealing how distant—and how familiar—they remain. Crime, illicit and transgressive love, exclusion, greed, power, revenge, money, ambition: the timeless engines of Chandler’s fiction are all present, rendered with clarity and bite.

This should be regarded as a serious novel in its own right. There will always be prose purists who bristle at the idea of graphic novels being anything more than children’s literature, but that view no longer holds. Just as we came to accept film adaptations as serious works of visual literature, there is no reason graphic novels should be treated with any less respect. This is a serious, thoughtful adaptation—no less legitimate than any accomplished cinematic reimagining of a classic, and quite possibly best enjoyed with a scotch in hand.

By the end, I found myself wanting to read Raymond Chandler’s entire oeuvre from start to finish. A truly successful adaptation indeed. Well done.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are going to list the top hard-boiled detective writers of all time, the top two names on that list have to be (in no particular order) Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, with everybody else a distant third and beyond (in case you’re curious, I would put Ross MacDonald at number three and then probably Mickey Spillane and James Cain to round out the top five). So if you’re going to take on rewriting one of the masters, you have to realize that you’re not going to improve on it, but maybe you’ll bring a new perspective to a classic. Arvind Ethan David gives it a go in “Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business”, a graphic novel of one of Raymond Chandler’s novellas, and for the most part he succeeds.

Los Angeles, 1930’s. Philip Marlowe gets hired by another PI to find out if a rich man’s son, Gerald Jeeter, is being taken advantage of by a “dame”, Harriet Huntress, who may be just a gold-digger out to make a buck. Sounds simple and straight forward, right? Ah, if it were only that easy.

Marlowe gets knocked out by Gerald. Gets involved with a casino owner, who has quite a few debts owed by Gerald and seems to be attached to Harriet as well. Finds another PI on the case, who happens to be dead. Gets confronted by the old man, but is he the client? Gets shot at by two low level thugs and rescued by the old man’s chauffeur, who happens to have a college degree and is quite an excellent shot. Gets kidnapped. Finds another dead body. Finally gets all the players in a room and figures out who did what. All in a day’s work for Marlow, after all, because trouble is his business.

A nice adaptation, with a few changes that will probably upset the purists. But the artwork and the language capture the feel, the mood of the original story, which you should definitely read if you haven’t yet.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor - Pantheon via NetGalley. Thank you!

[Starr ❇✌❇ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first experience with true noir, and I enjoyed it more than I'd expected- maybe from the spark of modernity this adaptors gave it, or maybe just because it was a well told story. This is a 105 page mystery, it's a quick reas and squeezes in plenty of style without drowning in it. I'm sure there are some things that get left behind from the original novel, and I'll admit to being a bit uncertain with the ending, but all in all it's definitely entertaining.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Works OK as a story, though it isn't my favorite by Chandler and Chandler is far from my favorite detective story writer. Most of this graphic novel's changes to the plot and dialogue are improvements.

But this adaptation is too long on dialogue and short on action. Long stretches of brisk dialogue can zip along in short stories and novels, but in graphic novel format, the many pages of word balloons emphasize the lack of action. When action occurs, the artist's stylish but oddly static rendering usually makes even the action almost soporific.

Overall, 3 stars: 4 for plot and dialogue, 3 for artistic skill, and 2 for the ability of the combination to keep my attention. Graphic novel adaptations tend to put me to sleep, so maybe I'll probably read it later when I haven't read so many Marvel and DC comics within recent memory.

[doowopapocalypse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arc from Netgalley.

Graphic novel adaptation of a Raymond Chandler novella that underwhelms. The art frustrates, not being terrible but also not allowing for a easy or enjoyable reading experience.

[Tad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Chandler is one of the first names that come to mind when you think of hard-boiled detectives and noir mysteries. I was excited to see one of his stories told as a graphic novel. Arvin Ethan David with the writing, Ilias Kyriazis with the pencils and ink, and Cris Peter with the colors did an amazing job! Just by looking at the cover, you can tell they are in tune with the mood, the period, and the attitude of this story.
Philip Marlowe is the epitome of the seen-it-all, nothing fazes him, I'm going to solve this mystery sort of detective. When approached by another detective looking to subcontract a job, he decides to take it. A woman who works for a gambler has her hooks in a rich kid's son, and Marlowe's job is to get her hooks out of him.

Marlowe sizes up the girl and decides he likes her, even if he doesn't trust her. That makes his job just a little more difficult. His curiosity to learn what's really going on lands him in the path of a couple of fists and a couple of bullets. He solves the mystery eventually, but very few people end up happy.

This is a great story. It starts with great source material from Raymond Chandler, but David, Kryiazis and Peter translate it wonderfully into a graphic novel. Arvin David takes Chandler's prose and conveys it in the visual medium that allows pictures to tell the story while preserving the same snappy dialogue and inner monologues that make this work a classic. Kyriazis and Peter add the images that propel the story, conveying action, mood, and emotion through pictures and color. The lettering is extremely creative, not only with different fonts for each character, but also with the placement of the dialogue bubbles, which convey when dialogue is delivered rapidly back and forth and when it is delivered more languidly.

This was a fun read and a great visual experience. It also reminded me of how much I enjoy Raymond Chandler's work and makes me want to reread his stories. A great adaptation of the story, one that should be enjoyed by both old and new fans alike.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A graphic novel version of a classic Raymond Chandler story featuring his Private Detective Phillip Marlowe.
It's similar enough, to give you that authentic Chandler/Marlowe vibe,but different enough to keep you interested,if you already know the story.
The art is good. Be warned, this is a 'wordy' comic,at times. But it's worth it.
I was cool with the changes that were made.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, but I guess I'm just not a hardboiled crime noir fan (except for Captain Picard's Dixon Hill...). I did enjoy the artwork, though sometimes it was hard to tell all the white guys apart. I do appreciate how the graphic novel format is a nice way to try out something new without having to deep dive into a full text, and this definitely fit the bill there.

Thanks to Pantheon/Knopf Books (PRH) and Goodreads Giveaways for the review copy.

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The street outside was wet, though it hadn’t rained. The kind of wet that comes from hoses and ashcans and alley grime, the kind that makes the neon look brighter and the shadows darker. A book like this belongs in that kind of light. Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business, cut into panels and colored in with cigarette smoke and whiskey tones, walks straight into your office and asks for a drink before it even introduces itself. You size it up, decide if it’s a friend, a foe, or something in between. And as you turn each page, you realize it’s all three at once.

This graphic novel adaptation—scripted by Arvind Ethan David, drawn with long lines and sharp angles by Ilias Kyriazis, filled with moody swaths of color by Cris Peter—doesn’t try to sand down Chandler’s edges. It lets them scratch. It lets them bite. It lets them linger like a hangover. You get Marlowe in voice and stance, but you also get something new: Harriet Huntress as a child, staring at her father’s body after a suicide, and George Hasterman, the Dartmouth-educated Black chauffeur who steps out of Chandler’s margins and into the spotlight.

The story is still the story. A sour-faced millionaire named Jeeter sends Marlowe after Harriet, a redheaded siren accused of digging her hooks into the man’s adopted stepson. The stepson, Gerald, is a blond bruiser with fists but no brains, a drinker and a dreamer. Harriet is supposed to be the trap, the danger, the trouble—but trouble’s never that simple. Soon Marlowe’s on the receiving end of haymakers, death threats, and the wrong end of pistols. That’s the business. Trouble doesn’t get asked for; it just shows up, late at night, carrying a gun and a grudge.

Where the graphic novel steps off Chandler’s well-worn path is in the coloring of the side streets. George isn’t just the hired driver anymore—he’s a man with a history, a pride, and a story that runs parallel to Marlowe’s. We see his mother at his graduation, forced to sit away from the white families but beaming all the same. We see his war service, his steadiness with a rifle, the way America gave him a uniform and then handed him back a driver’s cap. These aren’t Chandler’s words, but they fit like they could have been. They give the world weight, and they give Marlowe a counterpart—someone who can shoot straight, think sharp, and call him on his blind spots.

The book looks good. Not perfect, but good. The panels use shadow like Chandler used simile—over and over, sometimes obvious, sometimes cutting right to the quick. There are rooms half-drowned in cigarette haze, cars parked under lamps that glow too bright, faces caught in expressions that say more than the dialogue dares. Sometimes it feels stagey, like a set dressed too carefully, but most times it lands. The best stretches let the art and Chandler’s dialogue play jazz together—line answering line, cigarette glow bouncing off rain-slick pavement.

And Harriet—she gets more space here too. More dimension than the femme fatale cutout you’d expect. Her backstory makes her vengeance sharper, her bitterness heavier. You don’t forgive her, but you understand her. When she stares at Marlowe with those bedroom eyes, it isn’t just a game. It’s a gamble she’s been playing since she was a child who lost everything. In prose, you only get what Marlowe sees. In these panels, you get to see her for yourself, and that makes the ending land differently.

Still, some things get lost in the translation. Marlowe’s voice—Chandler’s clipped, cynical, metaphor-drunk narration—doesn’t always fit neatly into captions. It’s there, but thinned, like whiskey cut with too much water. The wisecracks hit, but sometimes they feel pasted on top of art that’s already telling the story. The pacing too, here and there, stumbles. A scene races past where Chandler would have lingered, or it stretches long where Chandler would have cut short. That’s the gamble of adaptation: you win some, you lose some.

What this book gets right is tone. The sense that Los Angeles is a city built on shaky ground, a place where fortunes shift and lives collapse under neon light. The sense that everyone—Harriet, George, Gerald, Marlowe himself—is playing a game they can’t quite win, but can’t quit either. The artwork makes that world tactile. You see it in George’s proud stance, in Harriet’s flash of anger, in Marlowe’s tired eyes.

What it misses is the poetry of Chandler’s rhythm. You don’t always get the long, winding comparisons, the sly humor buried in a throwaway phrase. Some of it survives, but the comic medium bends those words into speech balloons and captions, and they lose some of their gravity in the bend. For a Chandler purist, that might sting. For a new reader, it might not matter at all.

The ending here bends too. Not broken, just bent. The adaptation offers a twist that feels more romantic, less bleak. Some will like that, seeing it as fresh, even hopeful. Others will call it soft, a betrayal of Chandler’s hardboiled fatalism. Me, I think it’s somewhere in the middle—an experiment that doesn’t ruin the story but doesn’t quite improve it either.

What sticks, after you close the covers, is George. The chauffeur who wasn’t supposed to matter, who Chandler barely gave lines, here becomes a man worth remembering. In his presence, you feel the adaptation’s true aim: to expand the frame, to let in voices that noir once left out. Whether Chandler would have approved isn’t the point. What matters is that George feels real, layered, alive—and he makes Marlowe’s world larger.

So where do I land? Somewhere in the smoky middle. The graphic novel is no masterpiece, but it’s no knockoff either. It’s a solid reimagining, flawed but worthwhile, smart in its choices, clumsy in a few places, stylish in most. It won’t replace Chandler’s original, but it doesn’t have to. It lives beside it, a new alley branching off the same rain-slick street.

And for that, for the colors and the characters, for George and Harriet and the way Marlowe still leans in the doorway like he owns the joint, I’ll call it what it is: a fine piece of trouble. My rating: 79 out of 100.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business" is a competently done retelling of a classic Chandler tale that strays from the original enough to distress purists while failing to produce a revised story that is interesting enough to captivate most readers. Additionally, the artwork in this graphic novel is underwhelming and does not capture the Noir-ish vibe one would expect from a Chandler story. Finally, and perhaps most disappointingly, the femme fatale at the center of this tale is portrayed in such a lackluster manner as to induce fits of narcolepsy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

6/11/2025 3.5 stars rounded up. The eye roll I rolled when the author calls elc International Malaysia's "preeminent private school". Full review tk at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.

6/12/2025 Quick aside before we get to the meat of the book itself: being one of the few Malaysian American book critics in the industry sometimes makes it extra hilarious when I read claims like Arvind Ethan David's in his opening dedication, where he says that elc International School is Malaysia's "preeminent private school". Insert me and my Malaysian-private-school-educated siblings all going "who?" a la Korath the Pursuer from the Guardians Of The Galaxy movie. That said, elc certainly managed to instill the loyalty part of their name in at least one alumnus, so good for them!

School joshing aside, this graphic novel is a remarkable adaptation of the classic noir tale. Full disclosure: I hadn't read the original, and genuinely couldn't remember if I'd ever read any Chandler, prior to this graphic novel. As such, I've had to do a little digging around on the Internet to see exactly how closely the creative team hewed to the original story and how much was extrapolated in the creation of this comic.

The answer, as far as I can tell, is quite a bit. Some would argue that this dilutes the effect of Chandler's style, but given how disparaging that same style could be of people he disdained for purely cosmetic reasons, I think the changes only improve on the original. Tho speaking of, I cannot be the only person convinced that Anna and Gladys are lesbian lovers. Alas that Gladys has been omitted altogether from this adaptation. Fortunately, there's plenty of other representation to be had here, as Chandler's most iconic hero -- the tough, alcoholic gumshoe Philip Marlowe -- is hired for a dirty job.

The client, Jeeter, is a very wealthy man, and his stepson Gerald will be too, when Gerald comes into the trust left to him by his mother on his twenty-eighth birthday. Unfortunately, Gerald has recently become enamored of a young woman named Harriet Huntress. The beautiful redhead works as a shill for casino owner Marty Estes, which was how she and Gerald presumably met. Old Man Jeeter wants Marlowe to get Harriet to drop Gerald, whether by threatening her with old dirt or with new consequences.

It's unsavory work but Marlowe needs the money. And if he gets beaten up a couple of times, well, there's nothing a hit of good scotch won't heal. When the bodies start piling up, however, is when Marlowe realizes he's in something a lot more complicated than a simple case of extortion. Will he be able to figure out the mastermind behind all the murders before he becomes the next target?

Mr David takes the brisk pace and tight turns of Chandler's novella and adapts them beautifully for this graphic novel, working closely with both artist Ilias Kyriazis and colorist Cris Peter to create a striking, stylish product all their own. You can tell that a lot of thought has been put into this book, with much of the dialog kept pristine while the art narrates both the source story and Mr David's unspoken enhancements. Personally, I think this adaptation improves on the original by cutting out unnecessary slurs and giving depth to several of the characters. YMMV, ofc, but had I gone into this book ignorant of the fact that it makes quite a few changes to the source material, I would have just assumed that this was all more proof of Chandler's genius.

Ben H Winters' foreword tipped me off, however, and I'm still not certain how I feel about that. Having gone into reading this mostly blind, I was surprised by how preemptively defensive his essay was. Having done a lot more research since, I can see why he wrote it that way. I am, in general, not a fan of forewords as they often give away too much for no reason. Mr Winters, at least, had very good reason here.

Purists may hate this adaptation but if you, like me, enjoy it when derivative media is done well, then you'll really enjoy this graphic novel as well.

Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business by Arvind Ethan David, Ilias Kyriazis & Cris Peter was published May 20 2025 by Pantheon and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor- Pantheon for an advance copy of this graphic novel adaptation of a short story about a detective, a woman too bad to be true, family ties and family lies, and the codes that helps us get through life, both good, bad and indifferent to others.

My gateway drug, or 7% solution to the mystery genres was Sherlock Holmes stories, followed y Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr and other giants of the golden age of detection. I became used to amateurs solving crimes, impossible puzzles, locked room murders and the like. Private detectives came later, probably the Spenser novels, whatever was popular enough to show up at tag sales and library sales. I remember getting something called the Pulp Detectives, I think, and not knowing anything about it, stuffed it in my bag for reading. It was a big bargain book, with a lot of authors and stories, and where my fascination with Black Mask stories and more came from. There was so much it blew my mind. Especially Raymond Chandler. The mystery was the key the MacGuffin as Hitchcock would say. To Chandler the mystery set the scene, the mystery was more about the people involved. Why do they do what they do? How long can a man, walking those dark streets not be mean, just give up being a knight-errant, and let the tide wash up over him. Chandler was a man with a lot of problems and a lot of darkness in him. This showed in his writings, and the many, many adaptations that have followed. Especially the most successful ones, like this one. Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business is an adaptation of a short story by Raymond Chandler, adapted by Arvind Ethan David, with pencils and inks by Ilias Kyriazis and colors by Cris Peter tells of a detective who finds himself in a suddenly complicated case involving families, love, aspirations, gangsters, cops and lots of bodies.

Philip Marlowe is asked to help on what seems like a simple case. A father wants to keep his son away from a young woman who seems to be spending his money freely around town, especially with gamblers. Marlowe's client is a father who seems to care little for his son, or stepson that he adopted. Marlowe learns another detective had investigated the woman in question earlier, so Marlowe tries to meet with the detective who specializes in documents, but finds the man dead in his office. Already thinking this case was getting bad, Marlowe meets the woman, and falls deep in like with her something she seems to be receptive to, but Marlowe is knocked out before he can make more of this. Slightly concussed, and even more drunk Marlowe goes home to find two thugs, one using a .22 to get their point across, the same weapon that killed the detective Marlowe found earlier. As the night goes on, Marlowe has a run-in with the cops, is nearly killed twice, and still can't figure out why so many bodies keep appearing.

The best adaptations has capture the inner voice of Philip Marlowe, and the way he sees the world. This does that and more. The way key characters are introduced gives the reader insight in not only why they act the way they do, but clues to what might happen later. The writer has captured not just the feel, but the atmosphere of the time, the nastiness, the racism, the misogyny, the feeling that the world had gone to hell, or maybe was in hell, soon to be repeated in World War II. The writing is good, as is the changes to fit the graphic medium. The art is outstanding, a mix of Howard Chaykin, and European colors, with a detailed look of the times and the people. The clothes, the cars, even the way people carry themselves. The coloring is really good to adding to both the story and the emotions that the reader knows the characters are dealing with. A really wonderful read, and a beautiful book to look admire.

I really want more from this team. One can tell when a crew is firing on all cylinders, and this creative group are like the perfect heist gang. They know the job, how to do it, how to get in, get out, and leave the reader wanting more. More is what I hope I get. Perfect for Chandler fans, fans of crime comics, and creators like Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker, and people who love to look at well illustrated graphic novels.

[Lay Tonic · Rating 5 out of 5]

The graphics of this novel are very old school, which fits the title and storyline perfectly. It is a story that is based before the 1950s because the female in the story line has fallen for the African-American in the story and has stirred up some mess between the father and the guy she was supposed to be seeing, which ended in the death of him because she loved the African-American more and planned to stay with him even after they were caught. It was really a classic story where the woman falls for the negro but, tries to keep on the hush. It reminded me a lot of any other slight diverse film or book that may have been written well past this story line has been written. I enjoyed it. The main character was close to an alcoholic if you ask me but, I guess that was the thing then; tobacco and booze.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip Marlowe is hired to pry a dame off a rich man's son. But the more involved he becomes, the weirder the case appears. Another gumshoe is found murdered, the rich son clobbers Marlowe from behind, gunmen show up at his apartment, and the police seem to have a heads-up on case developments. But as the bodies start to stack-up, Marlowe calls all the interested parties together for the big reveal. But while most folks buy Marlowe's conclusion, Marlowe doesn't. But will he find out the actual path of events or will he be left in the dark? Pickup this well-drawn title and enjoy this version of a classic noir tale!

Thanks Netgalley and Pantheon Graphic Library for the chance to read this title!

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been years since I have read a gumshoe detective story. I grew up on them. I really enjoyed this graphic novel. To be honest, it is because of the format that this book was made into that I kept my focus on the story. The illustrations are really good. They popped and brought the story to life. The death of character is not very graphic with all the blood.

The cast of characters are good. Marlow is an intelligent detective and the right man for the job. I like the addition of George. There was something about him that drew me in. Finally, there is Harriett. She is not just a sultry siren. She has smarts too.

If you like graphic novels and detective stories, then you will want to pick up this one.

[Chris Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I won this book through a Goodreads promotion.
For people who dislike the Graphic Novel and/or adaptations, Ben H. Winters provides a wonderful foreword. I love Raymond Chandler's work. It has been 'adapted' in a variety of movies that I have watched. This work is a much better adaptation than many of them. The story is great. The drawings are average but ok. The use of color in a noir is a nice touch. The dialogue is readable, and the creative use of intertwining voice balloons is terrific, as are the different fonts used depending on the situations. I believe Raymond Chandler would appreciate the homage.

[DollarBin ComicWin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trouble Is My Business oozes noir. Michael Lark distills Chandler’s pulp poetry into stark blacks, cigarette haze, and perpetual twilight. The adaptation keeps the bite and melancholy of the original stories; Philip Marlowe still wades through the muck of L.A., where every favor comes with a body and every truth cuts deeper than a knife. It’s as much a mood as a mystery, and Lark’s art nails that rhythm: the sharp trench-coat angles, the chiaroscuro shadows, the silence between lines. This isn’t modernized noir; it’s reverent, unhurried, and just cynical enough to still sting. Excellent for fans of Sin City, Criminal, or Blacksad.

[Ron Baumer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having looked at a couple of the reviews before I read this graphic novel, I was worried that I had made a mistake. The reviews had complained about the artwork and readability of the story. However, I decided to go ahead with the novel. I did not see any of the issues identified. I felt the artwork was well-done and the held true to the original story. The book was a quick read and hard to put down. If you are a fan of older detective mysteries, you will enjoy this book. A good read.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Dahlia (ofpagesandprint) · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business is an interesting, action-packed noir.

I enjoyed this one, but I also found parts underwhelming and crowded. The characters were intriguing and well-developed. The plot was interesting, although it felt a bit choppy. I loved the different art styles and illustrations, but the pages sometimes felt large and cramped with writing. The prose, however, was immersive, and I enjoyed the 1940s setting. The pacing sometimes felt a bit too fast, but I enjoyed the twisty ending. Overall, this one was fun, and I would recommend it to readers who’ve had their eyes on it.

Thank you to the publisher for the free copy!

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free eARC of this graphic novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I was impressed by this graphic novel. The writing was excellent. The artwork is a little nouveau for me, but I think, in retrospect, that it added to the overall effect. Seeing this story done in this medium added some for me. The way it all added together made it more than just the sum of its parts. I would not mind rereading this multiple times.

[B. Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this ARC on NetGalley, but then the publisher emailed me asking if I’d like a physical ARC (heck yeah!)

So this review is based off the physical book.
The book was a beautiful hardcover and pretty big, which was great because I didn’t have to squint to read it. The art style really suited the story. I really enjoyed this graphic novel and am looking forward to more from the author.

[Jesse Tenney · Rating 3 out of 5]

*The initial pdf copy I received from the publisher was nearly unreadable, however I was able to successfully view this through the NetGalley Reader app.

“The morally gray world of Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s iconic private eye, comes to vivid life in this brilliant graphic novel adaptation of the classic noir tale.”

Trouble Is My Business was originally a novella published in 1939 featuring Chander’s most famous hard-boiled detective, Philip Marlowe. The story comes to life in this latest graphic novel, scheduled to be published in May 2025. This was a fun, quick visit to the world of Chandler in a well-drawn, illustrated format. I would personally recommend waiting for a physical copy of the book as it’s a must-read for fans of classic noir.

A very special thanks to NetGalley and Pantheon for the advanced copy!

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

If trying to read the ARC, go through the Netgalley Reader app; otherwise it's completely unreadable.

Classic Philip Marlowe, classic Raymond Chandler. While I'm a Chandler (and noir) newbie, this graphic novel did the job of introducing me to the story AND intriguing me enough to go out and discover the original material.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good artwork that captures the film noir genre, imaginative use of fonts and shapes make them more useful than the norm, but there's still too much dialog for a graphic novel. Good story, I'm not sure how closely it follows the original. It was a decent read, but less hard-boiled than usual. It even had the cliche gather the suspects together in the room scene.

A decent read.

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure if there is a formatting issue for the digital books, but perhaps the print copy might be better.

I am normally a fan of Raymond Chandler, so why wouldn’t I love this, right?

This book, the format, is almost unreadable. It reads like a ransom note, with the text being different fonts and sizes. The art is not much better.

I’m hoping something got lost on the transition from print to digital. Until then, I’m going to have to give it two stars. I liked what I could understand, but it was not a great reading experience.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pantheon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[The_J · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is effective enough, changed to fit our modern sensibilities of course. There were some artistic choices that stood out as nigh inspired - but not enough to make the piece shine to its potential.

[Dan Blackley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adaptation of the short story by Chandler, this graphic novel is an exciting one. With all the troupes one finds in the hard boiled novel, Marlowe walks those mean streets where a man must go one more time.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

temporary review -
A graphic novel adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is my Business that's as suspenseful and exciting as the original. The artist does an amazing job using 2 page spreads, shadows, and silhouettes to create tension and surprise. The character design was easy to identify.

[Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid, snazzy detective noir story adapted with amazing coloring, bold and atmospheric line art, and suitably stylish, deliberate lettering. The characters are the most important part of this story and this adaption does its damndest to keep true to that. A great story adapted brilliantly.