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Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe
Authorized by the estate of the late Raymond Chandler, this volume reveals the missing life history and detective adventures of Philip Marlowe, one of the 20th century's most enduring and beloved characters. Marlowe is the quintessential American detective: cynical yet idealistic; romantic yet full of despair; a gentleman capable of rough violence. The stories are written by some of the detective-mystery genre's leading lights, including Max Allan Collins, Sara Paretsky, Roger L. Simon, Stuart M. Kaminsky, Robert Crais, Edward Hoch, Ed Gorman, Eric Van Lustbader, Loren Estleman, Simon Brett, and Joyce Harrington. The final story in the volume is Raymond Chandler's last Marlowe adventure: The Pencil. The stories run chronologically through the career of Marlowe, from 1935 through 1960. These are classic Marlowe tales of betrayal, mistrust, and double-dealing on the seamy side of Los Angeles.
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Published October 1, 2003
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About the author
Robert B. Parker
489 books2,296 followersLibrarian 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.
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.
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September 13, 2020
Overall 3.5 stars, but with several 5-star hidden gems.
Definitely worth acquiring and reading.
There is a very interesting foreword, worth reading, and the introduction is by Robert B Parker: a brief biography of Chandler.
I am listing my review of Chandler's story here, ahead of the others.
The Pencil by Raymond Chandler
His very last story - 4.5 Stars
Marlowe's ideal-but-untouchable woman, Anne Riordan, appears as an actual player in this story. His relationship with her is by far the strangest, and perhaps the most difficult, in all of Chandler's writing. More below.
Chandler died in 1959, and this is his final story (Poodle Springs was only started in 1958, and, in my opinion, poorly finished by Robert B. Parker in 1989). It's satisfyingly complex and convoluted, with Marlowe saving a reformed mobster, but too short for our needs.
A mobster's Colt Woodsman, with suppressor
Most importantly, in this story we see the last meetings of Marlowe and Anne Riordan, and I find them sad and strange.
To understand her better, and the place she occupies in Marlowe's life, I refer you to the excellent, partial article by David W. Madden (preview courtesy Google)
Anne Riordan: Raymond Chandler's Forgotten Heroine
I include an example of Marlowe and Anne's banter here, which I find quite sad. I like to think that Anne takes good care of Marlowe in his old age.
“You’re the damnedest guy,” she said. “Women do anything you want them to. How come I’m still a virgin at twenty-eight?”
“We need a few like you. Why don’t you get married?”
“To what? Some cynical chaser who has nothing left? I don’t know any really nice men—except you. I’m no pushover for white teeth and a gaudy smile.”
I went over and pulled her to her feet. I kissed her long and hard. “I’m honest,” I almost whispered. “That’s something. But I’m too shop-soiled for a girl like you. I’ve thought of you, I’ve wanted you, but that sweet clear look in your eyes tells me to lay off.”
“Take me,” she said softly. “I have dreams too.”
“I couldn’t. I’ve had too many women to deserve one like you."
The women you get and the women you don’t get—they live in different worlds. I don’t sneer at either world. I live in both myself.
-
The other stories, some are quite fine. The best are titled IN BOLD
1935 The Perfect Crime - 2.5 stars
Vaguely Marlowe-esque, but too superficial, too little "show don't tell", and a wordy climax and denouement. Very unsatisfying.
1936 The Black-eyed Blonde - 0 stars
Stupid crap
1937 Gun Music - 3 stars
Not a bad story, but rushed. The prose was nowhere near Chandler's, but at least he tried.
1938 Saving Grace - 3 stars
Adequate, but not Chandler's prose or pacing. Sags in the middle, silly at the end.
Malibu, 1939
Full size image here
1939 Malibu Tag Team - 4.5 stars
Very Good, almost Chandler. Prose, plot and pacing are good. Colourful characters, Marlowe-familiar, and the easy, smooth voice we love.
I caught a fast cab back to the office and picked up my car. It took me about a half an hour to make it down to Long Beach and another ten minutes to find The Enchanted Cottages motel. They didn’t look enchanted to me. Haunted, maybe.
-
Chandler had a truly memorable voice; and through his narrator Marlowe, he showed me that a detective could be a lot more than a wisecracking stereotype (although Marlowe could crack wise with the best of them). Philip Marlowe remains, I think, the funniest, the most worldly wise, the most charmingly cynical, and the most original creation in American detective fiction. Marlowe was, and will always be, a model for us all.
- Jonathan Valin, author
1940 Sad-eyed Blonde - 4 Stars
Pretty good, plot, pacing and characters. The dialogue is good but not great. A worthwhile homage to Chandler.
Marlowe's .38 Colt Super Match
Full size image here
1941 The Empty Sleeve - 4 Stars
Quite good, characters and prose and dialogue, but with Marlowe perhaps not quite as sharp as we prefer.
1942 Dealer's Choice - 4 Stars
Another good one, with great pacing and a delicious femme fatale.
Chandler’s women are complex, some venial, some drunk, some sex cats, some gallant, but in most of his books the seductress, whether Dolores Gonzalez, Velma, or Carmen, is at the root of the trouble. I spent many years working on different ways in which a woman could play a stronger, less sexual role in a mystery and finally, in 1979 came up with V.I. Warshawski. So in a way Chandler is directly responsible for my decision to write a PI novel.
- Sara Paretsky
Kitty, the femme fatale
Full size image here
1944 Red Rock - 3.5 Stars
Pretty good in all the ways that count, perhaps a bit too rushed.
I don’t see how it is possible to read his books without being dazzled by the author’s economy, his originality, his brilliance—all of that—but most of all by his precision. Who among us doesn’t hear his cadences, his turns of phrase, when we sit down to work? We may never write that well—or even write similarly—but nonetheless we have internalized his work in a way that we couldn’t escape even if we wanted to. We have used it as a jumping-off place for our own work and those among us who are masochists may also use it as the standard of excellence by which they judge themselves.
- Julie Smith
1945 The Deepest South - 5 Stars. Superb.
Excellent. Unusual. The voice is confidant, more studied and more cerebral than Chandler. Sharper. This is a pleasure, a timeless story, a fact of life. Marlowe here is clearly recognisable, seeing the old story of a young man with a golden cage in his future. Marvellous.
... what I was trying to do with "Dias de combate" was launch a new genre, the new crime novel in Mexico, and not simply follow the tradition of the hard-boiled with a change of scenery. But no doubt Chandler was there; in stories built on dialogue and characters and atmospheres, rather than anecdotes, but which still managed to tell a story. For me, influenced by the Mexican baroque and magical realism, neorealism in the style of Chandler was the best option. Maybe no one can find traces of these influences in my books; it’s not that important. I know how to recognize my debts; I know that Chandler is there somewhere in my novels, and I’m grateful to him.
- Paco Ignacio Taibo II
I wish I could find English translations of his own books.
1946 Consultation in the Dark - 1 Star
Not much to do with Marlowe. Lots of dull dialogue.
1947 In the Jungle of Cities - 3 Stars
Name-dropping and a bit tedious. Not worth the trouble.
1948 Star Bright - 3.5 Stars
Not a bad story, even some glimmers of the Marlowe we know. VERY unpleasant ending.
I owe Chandler for showing me the true potential of detective fiction. For demonstrating that, far from confining the writer inside a formula, the detective story provides almost endless possibilities and directions. In many ways it sets the writer free.
- John Lutz
1951 Locker 246 - 3 Stars
Marlowe is recognisable here, although pretty uninteresting.
1952 Bitter Lemons - 4.5 Stars. Superb.
Personally, I was born in 1952 ... not much interested in Chandler then. But now, for me, there are few better.
There is quite a bit of love and echo of Chandler's voice in this story. Lots of passages like this:
I drove to Bay City with the windows open, half dreaming in the heat, not thinking about the drive. The smells of Los Angeles guided me. Each neighborhood has its own smell and look: the dry summer dust of the string of flatland towns; the suburban grass and steep hills as you head west; the smell of salt and the craggy coast as you hit the ocean and the coast highway. I drove south down the western end of the continent. This was as far as you could go, as far as your dreams would carry you in the United States.
-
Raymond Chandler is not one of my favorite writers. He is my favorite writer and has been since the day I happened to pick up a paperback copy of The Lady in the Lake shortly after my fourteenth birthday.
Marlowe on the printed page came alive instantly. I knew what he was feeling, suffered his pain, understood his pleasures, though I could never remember the plots. I still get them confused, but I find the characters unforgettable, especially Marlowe, who carries the burden of living with a cynicism which manages to avoid bitterness.
My only regret about Chandler is that he wrote so little.
- Stuart Kaminsky
Full size image here
1953 The Man Who Knew Dick Bong - 5 Stars. Superb
A fine Marlowe story, full of heart and truth and honour. There is much of Crais himself in this Marlowe. A true joy to see.
I drove around for a while and stopped at the Studio City park and watched some kids playing softball. There was a guy selling ice cream out of a little white cart, so I stood in line and bought a bar. I was twice as tall as anyone else in the line. You wonder why people have kids. You think maybe people oughta have to get special licenses or take classes. How to be a good parent. How to love. How to beat up each other without damaging your child. You think maybe there ought to be a special goon squad that goes around checking up on parents and beating the shit out of those who don’t measure up. Ah, Marlowe. You crab.
-
Robert Crais -
I am a sucker for heroes, and, at a point in my life when I very much needed one, Raymond Chandler gave me Philip Marlowe... What Chandler was doing wasn’t just telling lurid stories (which he did, better than almost anyone), he was exploring the ways a good man might retain his goodness in a modern world, and his themes were the themes of courage and duty and personal responsibility. I found this work profound. I still find it so. It caused me, for perhaps the first time, to consciously think about how I wanted to live my life and what would constitute acceptable ethical behavior and who I wanted to be. This reflection and the themes that grow from it recur in my work. Appropriately, they form the basis of “The Man Who Knew Dick Bong.”
Philip Marlowe didn’t just help to shape my fiction, he helped to shape my life. Thanks, Ray.
- Robert Crais
1954 Essenced'Orient - 3.5 Stars
Pretty good detective story, but I didn't feel much Marlowe in it.
I’ve read most of the novels and stories two or three times by now, and I return to my favorites regularly.
Virtually all of them have their memorable scenes, and especially their memorable closing lines, but I think my favorite remains The Lady in the Lake. I believe it to be the best plotted of all the books, showing Chandler’s craftsmanship at its peak (This reviewer agrees). It’s a complex story that’s still easy to follow, and even now it reads as if it had been written just last year.
There’s an urgency about much of Chandler’s writing that’s lacking in most of today’s private eye novels. I don’t pretend to have captured that mood in my own story about Philip Marlowe, but I’m pleased to have been a part of this project to honor a writer who will probably never be equaled.
- Edward D. Hoch
1955 In the Line of Duty - 4 Stars
Very good Marlowe, but not quite Chandler. Another story of two heroes, with honour and human truth.
1956 - The Alibi - 4 Stars
A nice convoluted plot in 15 pages. A recognisable Marlowe and some good dialogue, a nice human observation in the realm of the philosopher-detective, here:
My voice didn’t sound much better than Hanratty’s and I knew in that moment why I’d always liked him. He was an older version of myself. In younger days, when he’d been dapper and successful, he’d been somebody I’d wanted to be. Now, he was somebody I feared I would be.
1957 - The Devil's Playground - 5 Stars. Superb
Great prose, very Chandler. Great Marlowe, great pacing, great femme fatale and supporting players. And a great last paragraph, worthy of Marlowe and Chandler, himself.
“What’s going to happen to us?” the beatnik man asked Jesse.
“Nothing,” I quickly and loudly said. Jesse’s eyes locked on me. “Nothing at all. Because they’re smart. Whatever’s behind them is behind them. They’re running, and they don’t want to make the law dogs any madder, any hungrier for ’em than they already are. Hell, here they just shot up a guy a little. No big deal. Nothing to change their hand.”
-
In the months before [Six Days of the] Condor came out, I worked as an aide for U.S. Senator Lee Metcalf. One cold and dreary February afternoon in 1974, I muttered about the lack of “weight” of my first novel to the senator’s legislative assistant. She was tough, smart, and broked no nonsense. With a cigarette dangling from her lips, she said: “Kid, if you can ever write something half as good and important as Killer in the Rain, you’re all right.” And I still believe her.
- James Grady
1958 Asia - 2 Stars
Not Chandler, not Marlowe, mostly a giant cliché. But then, Lustbader is a hack, a thief, a funhouse mirror of truth and honour and heart.
Chandler’s work showed me the ultimate importance of atmosphere. His novels and short stories compelled me to realize the power such beauty can have to enlighten and enthrall a reader.
- Eric Van Lustbader
1959 Mice -3 Stars
I utterly object to Campbell's trashing of Marlowe's marriage just after Poodle Springs. It's a cheap shot, a denial of closure for Marlowe, almost enough to flush the whole mediocre story.
*** SADLY I HAVE REACHED THE LENGTH LIMIT FOR GOODREADS ***
Review continued in comments below
Definitely worth acquiring and reading.
There is a very interesting foreword, worth reading, and the introduction is by Robert B Parker: a brief biography of Chandler.
I am listing my review of Chandler's story here, ahead of the others.
The Pencil by Raymond Chandler
His very last story - 4.5 Stars
Marlowe's ideal-but-untouchable woman, Anne Riordan, appears as an actual player in this story. His relationship with her is by far the strangest, and perhaps the most difficult, in all of Chandler's writing. More below.
Chandler died in 1959, and this is his final story (Poodle Springs was only started in 1958, and, in my opinion, poorly finished by Robert B. Parker in 1989). It's satisfyingly complex and convoluted, with Marlowe saving a reformed mobster, but too short for our needs.
A mobster's Colt Woodsman, with suppressor
Most importantly, in this story we see the last meetings of Marlowe and Anne Riordan, and I find them sad and strange.
To understand her better, and the place she occupies in Marlowe's life, I refer you to the excellent, partial article by David W. Madden (preview courtesy Google)
Anne Riordan: Raymond Chandler's Forgotten Heroine
I include an example of Marlowe and Anne's banter here, which I find quite sad. I like to think that Anne takes good care of Marlowe in his old age.
“You’re the damnedest guy,” she said. “Women do anything you want them to. How come I’m still a virgin at twenty-eight?”
“We need a few like you. Why don’t you get married?”
“To what? Some cynical chaser who has nothing left? I don’t know any really nice men—except you. I’m no pushover for white teeth and a gaudy smile.”
I went over and pulled her to her feet. I kissed her long and hard. “I’m honest,” I almost whispered. “That’s something. But I’m too shop-soiled for a girl like you. I’ve thought of you, I’ve wanted you, but that sweet clear look in your eyes tells me to lay off.”
“Take me,” she said softly. “I have dreams too.”
“I couldn’t. I’ve had too many women to deserve one like you."
The women you get and the women you don’t get—they live in different worlds. I don’t sneer at either world. I live in both myself.
-
The other stories, some are quite fine. The best are titled IN BOLD
1935 The Perfect Crime - 2.5 stars
Vaguely Marlowe-esque, but too superficial, too little "show don't tell", and a wordy climax and denouement. Very unsatisfying.
1936 The Black-eyed Blonde - 0 stars
Stupid crap
1937 Gun Music - 3 stars
Not a bad story, but rushed. The prose was nowhere near Chandler's, but at least he tried.
1938 Saving Grace - 3 stars
Adequate, but not Chandler's prose or pacing. Sags in the middle, silly at the end.
Malibu, 1939
Full size image here
1939 Malibu Tag Team - 4.5 stars
Very Good, almost Chandler. Prose, plot and pacing are good. Colourful characters, Marlowe-familiar, and the easy, smooth voice we love.
I caught a fast cab back to the office and picked up my car. It took me about a half an hour to make it down to Long Beach and another ten minutes to find The Enchanted Cottages motel. They didn’t look enchanted to me. Haunted, maybe.
-
Chandler had a truly memorable voice; and through his narrator Marlowe, he showed me that a detective could be a lot more than a wisecracking stereotype (although Marlowe could crack wise with the best of them). Philip Marlowe remains, I think, the funniest, the most worldly wise, the most charmingly cynical, and the most original creation in American detective fiction. Marlowe was, and will always be, a model for us all.
- Jonathan Valin, author
1940 Sad-eyed Blonde - 4 Stars
Pretty good, plot, pacing and characters. The dialogue is good but not great. A worthwhile homage to Chandler.
Marlowe's .38 Colt Super Match
Full size image here
1941 The Empty Sleeve - 4 Stars
Quite good, characters and prose and dialogue, but with Marlowe perhaps not quite as sharp as we prefer.
1942 Dealer's Choice - 4 Stars
Another good one, with great pacing and a delicious femme fatale.
Chandler’s women are complex, some venial, some drunk, some sex cats, some gallant, but in most of his books the seductress, whether Dolores Gonzalez, Velma, or Carmen, is at the root of the trouble. I spent many years working on different ways in which a woman could play a stronger, less sexual role in a mystery and finally, in 1979 came up with V.I. Warshawski. So in a way Chandler is directly responsible for my decision to write a PI novel.
- Sara Paretsky
Kitty, the femme fatale
Full size image here
1944 Red Rock - 3.5 Stars
Pretty good in all the ways that count, perhaps a bit too rushed.
I don’t see how it is possible to read his books without being dazzled by the author’s economy, his originality, his brilliance—all of that—but most of all by his precision. Who among us doesn’t hear his cadences, his turns of phrase, when we sit down to work? We may never write that well—or even write similarly—but nonetheless we have internalized his work in a way that we couldn’t escape even if we wanted to. We have used it as a jumping-off place for our own work and those among us who are masochists may also use it as the standard of excellence by which they judge themselves.
- Julie Smith
1945 The Deepest South - 5 Stars. Superb.
Excellent. Unusual. The voice is confidant, more studied and more cerebral than Chandler. Sharper. This is a pleasure, a timeless story, a fact of life. Marlowe here is clearly recognisable, seeing the old story of a young man with a golden cage in his future. Marvellous.
... what I was trying to do with "Dias de combate" was launch a new genre, the new crime novel in Mexico, and not simply follow the tradition of the hard-boiled with a change of scenery. But no doubt Chandler was there; in stories built on dialogue and characters and atmospheres, rather than anecdotes, but which still managed to tell a story. For me, influenced by the Mexican baroque and magical realism, neorealism in the style of Chandler was the best option. Maybe no one can find traces of these influences in my books; it’s not that important. I know how to recognize my debts; I know that Chandler is there somewhere in my novels, and I’m grateful to him.
- Paco Ignacio Taibo II
I wish I could find English translations of his own books.
1946 Consultation in the Dark - 1 Star
Not much to do with Marlowe. Lots of dull dialogue.
1947 In the Jungle of Cities - 3 Stars
Name-dropping and a bit tedious. Not worth the trouble.
1948 Star Bright - 3.5 Stars
Not a bad story, even some glimmers of the Marlowe we know. VERY unpleasant ending.
I owe Chandler for showing me the true potential of detective fiction. For demonstrating that, far from confining the writer inside a formula, the detective story provides almost endless possibilities and directions. In many ways it sets the writer free.
- John Lutz
1951 Locker 246 - 3 Stars
Marlowe is recognisable here, although pretty uninteresting.
1952 Bitter Lemons - 4.5 Stars. Superb.
Personally, I was born in 1952 ... not much interested in Chandler then. But now, for me, there are few better.
There is quite a bit of love and echo of Chandler's voice in this story. Lots of passages like this:
I drove to Bay City with the windows open, half dreaming in the heat, not thinking about the drive. The smells of Los Angeles guided me. Each neighborhood has its own smell and look: the dry summer dust of the string of flatland towns; the suburban grass and steep hills as you head west; the smell of salt and the craggy coast as you hit the ocean and the coast highway. I drove south down the western end of the continent. This was as far as you could go, as far as your dreams would carry you in the United States.
-
Raymond Chandler is not one of my favorite writers. He is my favorite writer and has been since the day I happened to pick up a paperback copy of The Lady in the Lake shortly after my fourteenth birthday.
Marlowe on the printed page came alive instantly. I knew what he was feeling, suffered his pain, understood his pleasures, though I could never remember the plots. I still get them confused, but I find the characters unforgettable, especially Marlowe, who carries the burden of living with a cynicism which manages to avoid bitterness.
My only regret about Chandler is that he wrote so little.
- Stuart Kaminsky
Full size image here
1953 The Man Who Knew Dick Bong - 5 Stars. Superb
A fine Marlowe story, full of heart and truth and honour. There is much of Crais himself in this Marlowe. A true joy to see.
I drove around for a while and stopped at the Studio City park and watched some kids playing softball. There was a guy selling ice cream out of a little white cart, so I stood in line and bought a bar. I was twice as tall as anyone else in the line. You wonder why people have kids. You think maybe people oughta have to get special licenses or take classes. How to be a good parent. How to love. How to beat up each other without damaging your child. You think maybe there ought to be a special goon squad that goes around checking up on parents and beating the shit out of those who don’t measure up. Ah, Marlowe. You crab.
-
Robert Crais -
I am a sucker for heroes, and, at a point in my life when I very much needed one, Raymond Chandler gave me Philip Marlowe... What Chandler was doing wasn’t just telling lurid stories (which he did, better than almost anyone), he was exploring the ways a good man might retain his goodness in a modern world, and his themes were the themes of courage and duty and personal responsibility. I found this work profound. I still find it so. It caused me, for perhaps the first time, to consciously think about how I wanted to live my life and what would constitute acceptable ethical behavior and who I wanted to be. This reflection and the themes that grow from it recur in my work. Appropriately, they form the basis of “The Man Who Knew Dick Bong.”
Philip Marlowe didn’t just help to shape my fiction, he helped to shape my life. Thanks, Ray.
- Robert Crais
1954 Essenced'Orient - 3.5 Stars
Pretty good detective story, but I didn't feel much Marlowe in it.
I’ve read most of the novels and stories two or three times by now, and I return to my favorites regularly.
Virtually all of them have their memorable scenes, and especially their memorable closing lines, but I think my favorite remains The Lady in the Lake. I believe it to be the best plotted of all the books, showing Chandler’s craftsmanship at its peak (This reviewer agrees). It’s a complex story that’s still easy to follow, and even now it reads as if it had been written just last year.
There’s an urgency about much of Chandler’s writing that’s lacking in most of today’s private eye novels. I don’t pretend to have captured that mood in my own story about Philip Marlowe, but I’m pleased to have been a part of this project to honor a writer who will probably never be equaled.
- Edward D. Hoch
1955 In the Line of Duty - 4 Stars
Very good Marlowe, but not quite Chandler. Another story of two heroes, with honour and human truth.
1956 - The Alibi - 4 Stars
A nice convoluted plot in 15 pages. A recognisable Marlowe and some good dialogue, a nice human observation in the realm of the philosopher-detective, here:
My voice didn’t sound much better than Hanratty’s and I knew in that moment why I’d always liked him. He was an older version of myself. In younger days, when he’d been dapper and successful, he’d been somebody I’d wanted to be. Now, he was somebody I feared I would be.
1957 - The Devil's Playground - 5 Stars. Superb
Great prose, very Chandler. Great Marlowe, great pacing, great femme fatale and supporting players. And a great last paragraph, worthy of Marlowe and Chandler, himself.
“What’s going to happen to us?” the beatnik man asked Jesse.
“Nothing,” I quickly and loudly said. Jesse’s eyes locked on me. “Nothing at all. Because they’re smart. Whatever’s behind them is behind them. They’re running, and they don’t want to make the law dogs any madder, any hungrier for ’em than they already are. Hell, here they just shot up a guy a little. No big deal. Nothing to change their hand.”
-
In the months before [Six Days of the] Condor came out, I worked as an aide for U.S. Senator Lee Metcalf. One cold and dreary February afternoon in 1974, I muttered about the lack of “weight” of my first novel to the senator’s legislative assistant. She was tough, smart, and broked no nonsense. With a cigarette dangling from her lips, she said: “Kid, if you can ever write something half as good and important as Killer in the Rain, you’re all right.” And I still believe her.
- James Grady
1958 Asia - 2 Stars
Not Chandler, not Marlowe, mostly a giant cliché. But then, Lustbader is a hack, a thief, a funhouse mirror of truth and honour and heart.
Chandler’s work showed me the ultimate importance of atmosphere. His novels and short stories compelled me to realize the power such beauty can have to enlighten and enthrall a reader.
- Eric Van Lustbader
1959 Mice -3 Stars
I utterly object to Campbell's trashing of Marlowe's marriage just after Poodle Springs. It's a cheap shot, a denial of closure for Marlowe, almost enough to flush the whole mediocre story.
*** SADLY I HAVE REACHED THE LENGTH LIMIT FOR GOODREADS ***
Review continued in comments below
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