Може би сън

by Robert B. Parker, Теодора Давидова (Translator), Здравка Славянова (Translator)

„В най-добрата си форма, Робърт Паркър звучи повече като Чандлър от самия Чандлър…“ — писаха рецензентите от „Ню Йорк Таймс“, отбелязвайки успеха на „Пудъл Спрингс“ — бестселъра на Реймънд Чандлър, завършен от Робърт Паркър.

Паркър е роден през 1932 г. Той е доктор на философските науки в Бостънския университет. Професор е по английски език в Североизточния университет, Масачузетс, САЩ. Чете лекции по американска литература и е написал няколко учебника, един от които е „Личната отговорност към литературата“.

Издал е множество романи с главен герой частния бостънски детектив Спенсър. Сред тях са най-продаваните трилъри: „Белият орел“, „Звезден прах“ и „Партньори в играта“. „Белият орел“ е бил девет седмици в листата на бестселърите на „Ню Йорк Таймс“.

Робърт Паркър живее в Бостън с жена си Джоан.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective, Thriller, Noir, Mystery Thriller

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Robert B. Parker.
Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works were the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the mid-1980s; a series of TV movies was also produced based on the character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.
Parker also wrote nine novels featuring the fictional character Jesse Stone, a Los Angeles police officer who moves to a small New England town; six novels with the fictional character Sunny Randall, a female private investigator; and four Westerns starring the duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first was Appaloosa, made into a film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.

Reviews

[Henry Avila · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ghost of Raymond Chandler: How dare anyone write a sequel to my book, The Big Sleep, Perchance to Dream, not a bad name for my great novel, by the way, and where did I hear that before? This writer who shall remain nameless, doesn't do justice to the king, I admit. Come to think of it, I've read a lot worse in my days in Hollywood, as a hack.... Let's say I needed the money for the booze. A hard drinking guy had to pay the bills, the plot of this fraud is essentially a continuation of my epic. Philip Marlowe gets a call again, to come to the Sternwood house . Wacky Carmen has flown the coop, from the funny farm. Norris the butler, and the only normal person in that depressing, creepy old mansion, asks Marlowe to find her. Vivian is the older daughter of the quite late unlamented General Sternwood. Couldn't care less for her wacky sister, she's cute but nuttier than a poet in June. Philip gets his usual beatings by the goons in the City of Angels nothing new, for his big nose being where it shouldn't be shining. He's tough, but slow in getting off the dirt. And cops looking the other way, not friends. What is it in this book, always raining, in L.A.? It's a desert folks, brown everywhere. However it makes good colorful writing, for those with talent that is. Dr.Claude Bonsentir the quack head of the nuthouse... make that sanitarium, isn't very helpful. Bonsentir is a bit of a pimp for a man named Simpson, who has more money than God. Simpson a sadist, likes to have fun with crazy women, I'LL SAY NO MORE, EVEN I HAVE LIMITS. Water rights: buying cheap land in the desert , meeting thugs at every corner, never a very friendly situation, a couple of murders to add to the stew. Corruption by the establishment all around the town. The story is filled with those type of scum, maybe that's why all the rain keeps falling down, the city needs to be cleansed every day. P.S. I kind of enjoyed the novel as a tribute to me, anyhow does anyone out there have a drink? It gets very thirsty down here....Raymond Chandler the most talented mystery writer in history, it's a pleasure to read the unique way the author throws words on the page like a great poet which he was.

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert B. Parker claimed that he never did another Philip Marlowe book after this one because he didn’t want to spend his career writing another author’s character. Considering that he left one big dangling plot thread here it certainly seems like he was planning another Marlowe novel at that time. I gotta wonder if he didn’t realize after it was published that writing an iconic character is no easy feat and that he should walk away before any permanent damage was done.

Parker had already taken on the challenge of finishing Raymond Chandler’s last book, Poodle Springs, and he'd done a competent job of it. However, while Parker had been considered Chandler’s heir apparent at his peak, he’d already entered a stage of repetitive complacency in his own work and taking on the job of continuing the adventures of Phillip Marlowe may have been more work and risk than reward.

Parker's biggest mistake may have been writing a direct sequel to The Big Sleep. Carrying on with Marlowe would have been tough enough but add in the extra headache of trying to make it a follow-up to a book considered one of the classics of the genre and it just made Parker’s attempt seem even weaker by comparison.

Marlowe gets tangled up with the Sternwood family again when Carmen goes missing, and the detective is soon dealing with sister Vivian and gangster Eddie Mars while looking for her. The story is OK, and Parker had enough talent and too much respect for Chandler’s work to do anything that would dishonor the Marlowe name. But it all just feels unnecessary.

Another big mistake is that Parker incorporated passages from The Big Sleep as flashbacks to that story. Reading Chandler’s prose and then Parker’s attempt to mimic it just makes the seams stand out that much more.

If Parker had really been interested in carrying on the Philip Marlowe name, he would have been better served to take a crack at coming up with a new story and characters so that the comparisons aren’t so obvious. While Parker’s Spenser started as an homage to Chandler and Marlowe, Parker’s writing had long since evolved into another style of detective fiction. You can sense Parker gritting his teeth while writing the obligatory scenes where Marlowe gets beaten up, knocked out and abused in ways that would never happen to Spenser.

All in all, this isn’t bad, but it’s not going to make anyone forget about The Big Sleep.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You simply are a bastard, aren't you, Marlowe?" -- Vivian Sternwood

"I'm a detective, lady. I told you that before. I don't play at it - I work at it. I belong where I am, in a lousy apartment on Franklin, in a crummy office on Cahuenga. I pay my own way, and do what I will do, and don't accept insults. It isn't much, but it's mine." -- Philip Marlowe, on page 269

The late Robert B. Parker was particularly enamored with pulp detective fiction of the 1940's and 50's, so much so that he authored his Ph.D. dissertation on the trio of writers Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross McDonald. It was really no surprise, then, that his own private eye protagonist Spenser bore lineage to earlier fictional gumshoes, especially Chandler's Philip Marlowe. It was sort of bold when Parker took the helm and competently completed one of Chandler's unfinished Marlowe novels, Poodle Springs, but perhaps even more ballsy when he shortly thereafter composed a sequel to the The Big Sleep, a classic 1939 crime novel in which Chandler introduced Marlowe to readers, and brought a newfound respect to a literary genre that had been considered disposable at best and trashy at worst. Taking Parker's Perchance to Dream on its own merits, this was a damn fine story and also a plausible continuation - arriving over 50 years after the initial book, but who's counting? - that was stylistically reminiscent (without becoming a sort of poor imitation) of Chandler collectively in the noir plotting, evocative descriptions of settings, and crisp dialogue. Marlowe is pulled back into the dangerous web of the wealthy Sternwood family - the father has since passed away, but his adult daughters Vivian and Carmen are still magnets for major trouble - when hired by the butler to locate the missing younger gal Carmen. The story would be right at home in the bibliography of Chandler, and Parker even works in some references to the real-life 'Black Dahlia' murder (an actress is found eviscerated in a field) and the cinematic classic Chinatown (corruption in high places, along with the battle for water rights in the L.A. region). While this novel has its many detractors, it had me dreaming that Parker took more stabs - pun intended - at carrying on Chandler's legacy by writing some further adventures of the honorable Marlowe.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Philip Marlowe returns to the Sternwood mansion in the hills of Los Angeles, having been called by Norris, the butler. Marlow finds the older daughter, Vivian, still resides there and still dating gangster Eddie Mars but her younger sister Carmen, still tormented by the events of the original story, has been sent off to live at Resthaven, a psychiatric rehabilitation facility. When Carmen disappears from there, Marlowe is hired to find her.

As most people will know, I’m a huge Raymond Chandler fan, and I think Philip Marlowe is such a great character. I was a little concerned to see that Robert B. Parker was authorised to write a sequel to The Big Sleep. As far as I can see, he butchered the character, the series and it just was torture to read. Parker is something of an expert with all things to do with Chandler, having been hired to complete the 1958 unfinished Chandler novel; Poodle Springs. But being an expert doesn’t mean he can write like Chandler nor do any justice to Marlowe.

Parker’s take on Philip Marlowe is a disaster; I found none of the wit remained and as a Private investigator, he was a bit of a lightweight. The attempt at nostalgia turns into an unequivocally puerile attempt at Chandler’s coolly sardonic narrative. Chandler’s plots are like a shadowy figure in the background, making it difficult for the reader to predict just what will happen but Parker’s plot is thrown at the reader and nothing is surprising.

Hugely unnecessary, Perchance to Dream adds no significance to the series and is just pointless. While I want to read more of Marlowe’s adventures, if they are anything like this, it’s not worth it. I’m sure I can find fan-fic with better character development and plotting than this attempt at another Philip Marlowe novel. This is the only Robert B. Parker novel I’ve read and with the damage he’s done to my beloved Marlowe, I don’t think I would want to read anything by him again.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/...

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parker does a solid job hitting all the usual notes you'd expect from Marlowe, though he comes off somewhat less punchy. Yet Parker plays it a bit too safe, not taking risks with the characters or the plot. Everything hangs together just a little too nice and neat.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got hold of a copy of this after listening to THE BIG SLEEP on Audible and realising that it would seem to lead to a sequel. How on Earth is Marlowe going to handle Eddie Mars now?

Then I realised there was a sequel.

Only it wasn’t that story.

Instead in PERCHANCE TO DREAM, if we think of Marlowe as Bogart, then Mars is Claude Rains. They’re involved in a plot concerning water which is so CHINATOWN as to hurt. And since CHINATOWN was influenced by Chandler, the whole thing becomes really - ridiculously - circular.

Weirdly (or maybe not, as this was surely at the start of the authors impersonating classic authors trend and no one had a rule book), even though Parker does a close approximation of Chandler, whenever he wants to reference something from THE BIG SLEEP he just quotes large chunks of it. Drops huge passages into his text. It's odd, as no matter how good a job Parker does, it's impossible not to be reminded that it's just an impersonation.

[Vincent Lombardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were two reasons i decided to read this book : 1. Because Poodle Springs was a book I enjoyed, Robert B Parker did Chandler proud finishing up his story and 2. Robert B Parker is a legend in his own right and he was the perfect author to continue Chandler's character. The problem with a lot of the criticism is that they felt Parker was going to be a Chandler clone without adding any personal style. While noticeable difference in writing style the book still feels like Marlowe and doesn't feel out of place within the series. I also thought the book while a good sequel to The Big Sleep and at the same time was also a good book end to the series that Chandler started. Revisiting old characters, concluding their stories and adding some new ones while without feeling that there is more to say about them after the novels conclusion.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Αν δεν συγκρίνεις το γράψιμο με του Τσαντλερ, αν δεν πάρεις πολύ κυριολεκτικά οτι είναι η συνέχεια του μεγάλου ύπνου κι αν δεν κρίνεις αυστηρά το γεγονός ότι υπάρχει κάπου ένας που τον λένε Μάρλοου σαν κλώνος όμως, είναι ένα ωραίο μυθιστόρημα. Η συνέχεια των χαρακτήρων πιστή και γενικά μ αρέσει ο Parker (όσο διάβασα γιατί στα ελληνικά δεν βρίσκω άλλα βιβλία του) γρήγορος, απλός, απότομος στα συν, το παράκανε λιιγο με τις παρομοιώσεις στα μείον αλλά προσπάθησε τίμια να τσαντλερίσει.

[Gary Sites · Rating 2 out of 5]

52 years after Chandler wrote the first Marlowe novel, The Big Sleep, Robert B. Parker writes the sequel. Although I found it an OK read, it left a lot to be desired. Marlowe is a shadow of his old self, and the plot is weak and fairly predictable. Parker just isn't the writer that Chandler was. Although it was nice to visit with Marlowe again, I could have done without this one.

[Adi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think it started rather good, but then it got boring around the middle part, and it never really recovered after that.
I haven't read many books from Robert B. Parker, only this one and the Poodle Springs. Perhaps his other works, where Philip Marlowe does not make an appearance, are better...

[Joe Noir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this novel. Three stars.

Now, if I was judging it as a Marlowe novel against the rest of the Chandler canon, I would have had to rate it lower. If I was judging Parker’s ability to write just exactly like Raymond Chandler, I would have rated it lower. If I was judging it as THE sequel to The Big Sleep, I would have had to rate it lower.

So many characters have been continued after their creators by new writers. Many of the writers we’ve never even heard of prior to publication. Nero Wolfe, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Solar Pons (himself a knockoff of Holmes), now Hercule Poirot, and even Parker’s own Spenser has been carried on after his death by another writer. I wonder what Parker would say now.

Will we have Wallander’s written after Mankell? Will Harry Bosch have new adventures by someone else after Connelly? Will there be Hole’s after Nesbo?

Who knows? Like most mystery and crime fiction, it’s all about dollars and death.

Don’t take it so seriously.

This novel could not possibly hold up to the best of Raymond Chandler. Parker would not have been able to write just exactly like Raymond Chandler without lapsing into parody. Is this THE sequel to The Big Sleep? I don’t care. It’s certainly one of the most entertaining Parker books I’ve ever read. It has a nice 1930’s/1940’s tongue in cheek sort of humor. It’s a pleasant and diverting read with a gruesome dismemberment murder, and excerpts from one of the best hardboiled detective novels ever written.

Take it, say, as a novelization of a cool old B-picture featuring a wisecracking gumshoe you like.

In that way, it’s kind of fun.

[Angelica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had nothing of what attracts me in noir (the wit, the subjective narrative, the well thought out plot and unforeseen plot twists, the almost satirical representation of an overly violent society) and every single thing that repels me in it (the homophobia, racism, misogyny, the violent male stereotype as the only one worth anything, cliché characters, even more misogyny, since there's so much of it saying it only once doesn't quite cover it).

On top of that, the storyline is obvious and uninteresting, existing only as a basis for the action scenes (which are quite badly written). The characters' motivations and reactions simply make no sense. For some reason, there's even a "big bad villain" who feels the need to explain his plans and his intentions while Marlowe is hearing, Bond-villain style.

As if that weren't enough, the author felt the need to include large verbatim quotes from The Big Sleep. The prologue and the first three chapters are basically copies from that, and there are other passages throughout the text. It's quite a short book, and a big part of it isn't even original.

What a disaster... The only redeeming feature is that it's so short I didn't waste too much of my time on it. Hopefully, Benjamin Black will have done a better job of writing Marlowe.

[James Orlando · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Audible review: This book was authorized by Raymond Chandler's estate. Parker made the right decision to move away from Marlowe after this one. Attempting to make a career from writing sequels to novels written in the 1930s is likely a bad idea.

Speaking of bad ideas, copying and pasting the first 20 minutes of this story directly from The Big Sleep's last chapter was the second worst decision made with the development of this book. The audiobook is ridiculously short if you skip the repeated section. Absolutely nothing new was added in, approximately, the first 20 minutes.

The worst decision was failing to create a solid motive for the villains of the story and choosing to swipe the plot of Chinatown (the 1974 film by Robert Towne and Roman Polanski and starring Jack Nicholson). The California water wars was the main story of the film and Perchance To Dream purloined it with no hesitation. At least it took a back seat to the mystery and murders. I can't see Marlowe behaving differently than Gittes did so there's no real gain from Alternate Universing the protagonist.

Elliott Gould is a decent narrator. This recording was made before audiobooks really became a mainstream entertainment medium, so adopting accents and varying pitch or intonation weren't really a thing. A new recording would probably be better.

I'll categorize this book as "Don't bother. It's barely a sequel and mostly a waste of time."

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by Parker as a sequel to Raymond Chandler's
'The Big Sleep.' It was fast paced, quotable writing, witty dialogue,
and much more interesting than 'The Big Sleep.' I loved the way two
authors can handle the same characters, and they stayed the same (vices
and virtues). Great lines:
...filthier than a Tijuana latrine
...looked like I had been dragged in by a cat and rejected
...My breath felt like the inside of a snare drum.
...He looked happy in the heat, like one of those reptiles who need it
to loosen up and come awake.
...The room was as charming as a heap of coffee grounds.
...Everything was written in the conventional language of lawyers, which
is why it took me an hour and a half.
...the rain that threatened to overmatch my wipers
...the road slippier than the pathway to damnation
...It was no more noticeable than a crocodile in a bathtub.
...The minutes dawdled by like reluctant schoolchildren.
Phillip Marlowe (the P.I. creation of Chandler) has much in common with
Spenser: "I pay my own way, and do what I will do, and don't accept
insults. It isn't much. But it's mine. Whatever brains and guts and muscle I was dealt, it belongs to me, and I use it in my work. And what
money I have I earned."

[Cindy Wynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Raymond Chandler and I love Robert B. Parker and I can't imagine any other author better equipped to continue Chandler's work. I admit I do have reservations about authors putting their own pens to the work and characters of another, but for me this combination works and I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

One criticism I do have is that this novel contains too much from the original work in the form of flashback. I think those sections are completely unnecessary and could have been eliminated. The prologue does not bother me so much as the inserts within the chapters. The novel does work well enough as a standalone and those who are truly interested in Chandler's novel would do well to read the original themselves rather than have it spoon fed to them.

If you like hard-boiled detective noir, you will enjoy this one.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining sequel to The Big Sleep, written by Robert B. Parker with heavy assistance from Raymond Chandler. The plot is pretty good and the novel gets better when Parker stops quoting from Chandler so much. Vivian is still attracted to Marlowe and her creepy little sister is still creepy seriously disturbed. Marlow is sapped, shot at, beaten up, and still manages to save the day, the sister, and stay true to his sense of ethics.

[Ann-Catherine Morner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tiresome.
To start with, the first third of the book is mostly cut and paste from The Big Sleep. Why? Why not tell people to read The Big Sleep first? Well, it is not only cut and paste. There is also censure. In 1991, woke wasn't a word. Instead we had Politically Correct, which is almost the same. Parker removes the "slurs" and inserts milder words. The trouble with that is that most of what he removes wasn't slurs in 1939.
Tiresome.
Just as Poodle Springs didn't feel like 1959, this story doesn't feel like 1939. If anything, it feels even later than Poodle Springs. Late 60s.
There is an obnoxious woman who is a 'Personal Assistant'. In 1939, most important secretaries were still men... She talks like Women's Lib, not like a Suffragette.
Tiresome.
Mr Chandler was very clear about corruption, and the fact that some people are rich from illegal deeds. Still, not everone who is rich is a criminal, and he is just as clearly against gangsters. Parker is of the opinion that all rich people are criminal, and Marlowe teams up with a gangster to fight them. The gangster comes out as a nice guy.
Tiresome.
On sex. Marlowe has casual sex, not nescessary for the plot. No publisher in 1939 would have allowed it. Heck, even Mike Hammer, who came along in 1947, only had sex 'between the lines' and offstage.
There is a pervert, into S&M. He is so stupid that you have to wonder how he made his hundreds of millions.
Mr Chandler had homosexuals of both sexes in all his books, and many of the short stories, some good, some bad. Parker seems to think that they don't exist, bad or good.
Tiresome.
Mr Chandler had many characters who were not white, some good, some bad. Parker has one Mexican, who is bad. Maybe the publisher told him to?
Tiresome.
Mr Chandler knows, and tells about drugs and drug addicts. They were around in the 30s, and long before. Parker only mentions drugs in the hands of an evil doctor.
Tiresome.
The plot is weak and predictable.
Don't waste your time and money on this. Do read The Big Sleep and the other Marlowe stories by Chandler. Hurry, before a 'sensitivity reader' gets its grubby mind and hands on them.

[Adam Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's difficult to judge the merits of this book because the assignment Parker has taken on is both impossible, and has a limited scope. Sure, the world has already been painted by Chandler, with half the characters already there, but Parker has to create a novel that naturally follows on from "The Big Sleep," without making it too similar, whilst making it close enough. And I think he has done a fine job of it. Reading "Perchance to Dream," it was easy to think you were reading Chandler. There were the wonderful descriptions and Marlowe was just as wise-cracking as he always is, but how much credit for that do you give to Parker and how much remains with Chandler. But, as far as a difficult job goes, I think Parker has done as about as good of a job as anyone could. It feels like the same world that inhabits "The Big Sleep" and it flows on a perfectly believable path from the first novel. Would I want to read another? Probably not, but I am interested to see how Parker handles his own work, as well as his completion of "Poodle Springs" which I haven't read for years. "Perchance to Dream" was a tough ask for any author. To have to step into the world of a master of the genre and inhabit it while sounding original but feeling like someone else, is no easy feat. But I give credit where credit is due, and I think Robert B. Parker has done a fine job with this novel, its limitations notwithstanding. I have read far worse imitators of Chandler, and at least Parker achieves what he has set out to do, and that is to write a believable sequal to one of the classics. Like I've said, that is no easy task.

[Jacoby · Rating 2 out of 5]

After I read "The Long Goodbye" I was as sick of Philip Marlowe as every character in the book, but I kinda liked him this time. Granted, I read this book out of circumstance and necessity. Nevertheless, it was mildly entertaining. I thought that the writing style stayed true to Chandler (not that, by any means, I'm qualified to make that designation). Even the story, actually, is really similar to "A Long Goodbye", what with there being some creepy sanitarium in the hills of Hollywood and Marlow having a hard time gaining access (those rest havens must have been a big deal back then). I suppose he kinda makes it hard on himself everywhere he goes. So it was okay. But I'll take Harry Bosch's annoying character traits any day. Frankly, Bosch (and Haller) are my dawgs, so far as L.A. detective fiction is concerned.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this sequel to The Big Sleep, Marlowe is back and working for the Sternwoods again. General Sternwood is dead, Carmen is institutionalized, and Vivian is living alone in the big mansion with the terraced lawn. Carmen has gone missing and it's up to Marlowe to find her. Robert Parker does a great job mimicking Chandler's voice. He uses a lot of the same language to describe places and characters that Chandler did in the original novel, and there are places where whole paragraphs are quoted verbatim. The only misses where the characterization of Norris, the Sternwoods' butler, and Carmen herself. And the eventual crime seemed a bit too gruesome compared to what I remember from Chandler's original works.

Overall, a dazzling success that was a fun time spend with old friends.

[John Reis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sternwoods are back in Marlowe’s life. After the Big Sleep, Carmen was put into a sanitarium, but she is missing. Marlowe is hired by Norris, the butler to find her.

The man who runs the sanitarium is not helpful, but one of the patients remembers her leaving. Marlowe learns that she may be with the wealthiest man in Southern California, Randolph Simpson.

This is a good story. Better yet, at no point, did I think this a Spenser or Jesse Stone novel. Parker takes time to describe the places Marlowe visits. Also, Marlowe in introspective, unlike Spenser.

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

A continuation of Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" starring noir detective, Philip Marlowe. Parker could only wish he wrote as well as Chandler, but then, he wasn't trying. (That infamous quote of his not caring about art, just wanting to sustain his family in the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.) You coulda been a contender, Parker.

[H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fun being back in the world of Marlow, even if this played more like a dance remix of Chandler than an actual Chandler book. Marlow almost took on a James Bond quality, and that’s the biggest gripe, or maybe it’s just him growing old that he needs to flush himself out with a surrounding cast. But Marlow is always a drink best poured on his own.

[robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm fairly impressed that anyone should have the nous to write a sequel to a Chandler novel; fair to say that Parker does much better than one could expect.

It really isn't bad. The pity is, that Parker chose to append a second ending to the really beautifully, tragically wound-down conclusion of The Big Sleep. Come up with a new story.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel that absolutely did not need to be written. When Parker isn't ripping off Chinatown, he has his hero get all sentimental about the Sternwoods, suggesting Parker did not really understand the point of the original novel which put the Sternwoods at the center of rot and decay, environmental and social.

[🦊 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel retains most of the linguistic qualities of Chandler’s prose but, theme-wise, it says nothing new about the character while, plot-wise, gradually deteriorating into a B-picture territory. A forgettable addition to the series.

[Terrence Malone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. Parker gave it a shot, but his narrative options are restricted by the events in later books (Playback, in particular.) I do believe that Parker is a good writer--I quite enjoyed Poodle Springs. But given the circumstances, I this was going to be a tough job no matter who had written it.

[Gergely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat better than Poodle Springs but still overdoing it.

[Chris Pondish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining but disappointing as the line between Marlow and Spenser blur.

[Tina Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing and narration by Marlowe stayed in character, but the story was very short (more of a novella).