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The Goodbye Coast
Raymond Chandler's iconic detective, Philip Marlowe, gets a dramatic and colorful reinvention at the hands of award-winning novelist Joe Ide
The seductive and relentless figure of Raymond Chandler’s detective, Philip Marlowe, is vividly re-imagined in present-day Los Angeles. Here is a city of scheming Malibu actresses, ruthless gang members, virulent inequality, and washed-out police. Acclaimed and award-winning novelist Joe Ide imagines a Marlowe very much of our time: he’s a quiet, lonely, and remarkably capable and confident private detective, though he lives beneath the shadow of his father, a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective, famous throughout the city, who’s given in to drink after the death of Marlowe’s mother.
Marlowe, against his better judgement, accepts two missing person cases, the first a daughter of a faded, tyrannical Hollywood starlet, and the second, a British child stolen from his mother by his father. At the center of COAST is Marlowe’s troubled and confounding relationship with his father, a son who despises yet respects his dad, and a dad who’s unable to hide his bitter disappointment with his grown boy. Together, they will realize that one of their clients may be responsible for murder of her own husband, a washed-up director in debt to Albanian and Russian gangsters, and that the client’s trouble-making daughter may not be what she seems.
Steeped in the richly detailed ethnic neighborhoods of modern LA, Ide’s COAST is a bold recreation that is viciously funny, ingeniously plotted, and surprisingly tender.
The seductive and relentless figure of Raymond Chandler’s detective, Philip Marlowe, is vividly re-imagined in present-day Los Angeles. Here is a city of scheming Malibu actresses, ruthless gang members, virulent inequality, and washed-out police. Acclaimed and award-winning novelist Joe Ide imagines a Marlowe very much of our time: he’s a quiet, lonely, and remarkably capable and confident private detective, though he lives beneath the shadow of his father, a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective, famous throughout the city, who’s given in to drink after the death of Marlowe’s mother.
Marlowe, against his better judgement, accepts two missing person cases, the first a daughter of a faded, tyrannical Hollywood starlet, and the second, a British child stolen from his mother by his father. At the center of COAST is Marlowe’s troubled and confounding relationship with his father, a son who despises yet respects his dad, and a dad who’s unable to hide his bitter disappointment with his grown boy. Together, they will realize that one of their clients may be responsible for murder of her own husband, a washed-up director in debt to Albanian and Russian gangsters, and that the client’s trouble-making daughter may not be what she seems.
Steeped in the richly detailed ethnic neighborhoods of modern LA, Ide’s COAST is a bold recreation that is viciously funny, ingeniously plotted, and surprisingly tender.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2022
328 people are currently reading
4026 people want to read
About the author
Joe Ide
11 books1,125 followersJoe Ide is of Japanese American descent. He grew up in South Central Los Angeles, an economically depressed area with a largely black population. Gangs and street crime were rampant. Like a lot of kids, Joe wanted to belong and his speech, style, musical tastes and attitudes reflected the neighborhood.
His favorite books were the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. That a person could make his way in the world and vanquish his enemies with just his intelligence fascinated him.
Eventually, he went on to university and received a graduate degree in education. He worked as a school teacher, a college lecturer, a corporate middle manager and director of an NGO that offered paralegal services and emergency shelter to abused women and children. He went on to write screenplays for a number of major studios but none of the projects came to fruition.
It was then he decided to write his debut novel, IQ, about an unlicensed, underground detective; a character inspired by his early experiences and love of Sherlock Holmes.
Joe lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife and Golden Retriever, Gusto.
His favorite books were the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. That a person could make his way in the world and vanquish his enemies with just his intelligence fascinated him.
Eventually, he went on to university and received a graduate degree in education. He worked as a school teacher, a college lecturer, a corporate middle manager and director of an NGO that offered paralegal services and emergency shelter to abused women and children. He went on to write screenplays for a number of major studios but none of the projects came to fruition.
It was then he decided to write his debut novel, IQ, about an unlicensed, underground detective; a character inspired by his early experiences and love of Sherlock Holmes.
Joe lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife and Golden Retriever, Gusto.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 277 reviews
February 2, 2022
Joe Ide has moved on from his IQ series, now resurrecting Chandler's PI Philip Marlowe for our contemporary times in Los Angeles. Woven into the novel is the troubled relationship that veers continually from anger to love and support that Marlowe has with his father, Emmet, a LAPD legend on leave due to his drinking, trying to drown his loneliness and grief at the loss of his beloved wife, Addie. Philip here is a quiet, alone, and understated figure, well dressed, unhappy at the levels of extreme inequalities of a city plagued by corruption, violence and brutality, and ruthless gangs. There is the glamour of Hollywood, beneath the movie business lustre lies a pit of darkness, full to the brim of a multitude of sins. A reluctant Marlowe finds himself meeting a scheming film star, a woman he is not impressed by, Kendra James, whose husband, 43 year old Terry, was murdered outside her Malibu home.
However, James does not want him to look into the murder, she wants him to locate Terry's teenage daughter, Cody, who has gone missing. Marlowe finds himself taking on another missing person case, this time a 7 year old boy, Jeremy, abducted by his father in England. His British mother, Ren Stewart, an academic and writer, is both desperate and distraught, and willing to do whatever it takes to find her son, such as following the slimmest of leads that end up putting her life in danger. It doesn't take Marlowe long to find Cody, a horror of a girl, unscrupulous, without a conscience, an entitled and privileged teenager who believes the world owes her a living. Believing her life may be in danger, he takes her to stay with Emmet to protect her, as he finds himself plunged into the criminal underbelly of LA, that includes Armenian gangsters and the Russian Mob.
Ide's Philip Marlowe is not Chandler's Marlowe, but he captures his spirit for our modern times, I had to admire his and Emmet's capacity to put up with the ungrateful, odious sociopath that is Cody, Emmet seeking to assuage his inner emptiness by looking for redeeming features in her that are simply not there. Marlowe finds himself having feelings for Ren that are doomed, she only has space in her for her son, her only interest in him is the possibility of him find him. This is a dark and intense crime read, packed with eminently unlikeable characters, self serving and greedy, with ultra dysfunctional families, where betrayal is the norm. We have an engaging and tenacious Marlowe who finds himself constantly in danger as he endeavours to resolve his challenging cases. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
However, James does not want him to look into the murder, she wants him to locate Terry's teenage daughter, Cody, who has gone missing. Marlowe finds himself taking on another missing person case, this time a 7 year old boy, Jeremy, abducted by his father in England. His British mother, Ren Stewart, an academic and writer, is both desperate and distraught, and willing to do whatever it takes to find her son, such as following the slimmest of leads that end up putting her life in danger. It doesn't take Marlowe long to find Cody, a horror of a girl, unscrupulous, without a conscience, an entitled and privileged teenager who believes the world owes her a living. Believing her life may be in danger, he takes her to stay with Emmet to protect her, as he finds himself plunged into the criminal underbelly of LA, that includes Armenian gangsters and the Russian Mob.
Ide's Philip Marlowe is not Chandler's Marlowe, but he captures his spirit for our modern times, I had to admire his and Emmet's capacity to put up with the ungrateful, odious sociopath that is Cody, Emmet seeking to assuage his inner emptiness by looking for redeeming features in her that are simply not there. Marlowe finds himself having feelings for Ren that are doomed, she only has space in her for her son, her only interest in him is the possibility of him find him. This is a dark and intense crime read, packed with eminently unlikeable characters, self serving and greedy, with ultra dysfunctional families, where betrayal is the norm. We have an engaging and tenacious Marlowe who finds himself constantly in danger as he endeavours to resolve his challenging cases. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
February 12, 2022
Philip Marlowe wasn’t cut out to be a cop, as his father Emmet predicted. Now, he is 10 years into his career as a private investigator, and Emmet is on leave for drinking on the job after the death of his wife. Marlowe has a new case looking for the 17 year old stepdaughter of the famous actress Kendra James. Cody went missing after her father was murdered on the beach in front of his house. Marlowe’s search involves him with a client who hates him on sight, warring siblings and various mobsters. He also takes on a second case trying to reunite a mother with her son who was taken to LA by her ex husband. The cases aren’t related, but Marlowe manages to put the mother in danger anyway. This is the second time I’ve read a Philip Marlowe homage and I enjoyed both books. The first was “Only to Sleep” by Lawrence Osborne. It isn’t really necessary to have read any of Raymond Chandler’s books before reading this book, although I have read a few. I just treated Marlowe as an entirely new character set in the present day rather than in the decades in which the Marlowe books were originally set.
There were a lot of characters to keep straight in this book, particularly the mobsters. I was listening to the audiobook and I might have had an easier job keeping track of their names if I could have seen them. Other than that, I really don’t have any complaints about this book. The author knows the movie business well so the details felt realistic. The plot was intriguing and the characters were interesting. The female characters were particularly sharp and acerbic. The dialog was amusing and snappy and the ending was satisfying. I would say that I hope the author writes another Marlowe book, but that is what I said after I read the author’s first IQ book. Unfortunately, that first book was the only one in the series that I really liked and the books kept getting worse and worse. So maybe this book should be his first and last Marlowe book. 4.5 stars
There were a lot of characters to keep straight in this book, particularly the mobsters. I was listening to the audiobook and I might have had an easier job keeping track of their names if I could have seen them. Other than that, I really don’t have any complaints about this book. The author knows the movie business well so the details felt realistic. The plot was intriguing and the characters were interesting. The female characters were particularly sharp and acerbic. The dialog was amusing and snappy and the ending was satisfying. I would say that I hope the author writes another Marlowe book, but that is what I said after I read the author’s first IQ book. Unfortunately, that first book was the only one in the series that I really liked and the books kept getting worse and worse. So maybe this book should be his first and last Marlowe book. 4.5 stars
February 10, 2022
The Goodbye Coast
Ide’s The Goodbye Coast is the latest of the pastiches and fanfics by major authors paying tribute to Chandler’s legendary Philip Marlowe. Ide takes it one twist further than most though and instead of filling in the gaps or planting a geriatric Marlowe in Baja, resets the whole thing by placing it in present-day Los Angeles. You still get the office in Hollywood and familiar streets, but it has very little of that Chandleresque prose with its endless similes and the whole feel and sense of place is completely different. It’s not Chandler and it’s not Marlowe as we know him from Chandler’s seven novels. Rather, it’s a present-day private eye with the same name and a bit of the same surliness. If you are looking for a taste of what you are familiar with, you’ve come to the wrong place.
That being said, Ide’s Marlowe is not without his charms and you get a story of celebrity excess and murder and runaways that is quite absorbing from the exchanges between Marlowe’s cantankerous father Emmett and Cody, the spoiled teenage runaway whose life just might be in danger to Marlowe’s attitudes about the pampered rich.
Ide’s The Goodbye Coast is the latest of the pastiches and fanfics by major authors paying tribute to Chandler’s legendary Philip Marlowe. Ide takes it one twist further than most though and instead of filling in the gaps or planting a geriatric Marlowe in Baja, resets the whole thing by placing it in present-day Los Angeles. You still get the office in Hollywood and familiar streets, but it has very little of that Chandleresque prose with its endless similes and the whole feel and sense of place is completely different. It’s not Chandler and it’s not Marlowe as we know him from Chandler’s seven novels. Rather, it’s a present-day private eye with the same name and a bit of the same surliness. If you are looking for a taste of what you are familiar with, you’ve come to the wrong place.
That being said, Ide’s Marlowe is not without his charms and you get a story of celebrity excess and murder and runaways that is quite absorbing from the exchanges between Marlowe’s cantankerous father Emmett and Cody, the spoiled teenage runaway whose life just might be in danger to Marlowe’s attitudes about the pampered rich.
December 21, 2022
For some reason, Ide has decided to rep Raymond Chandler and revive Chandler's iconic detective, Phillip Marlowe. Wisely, Ide modernizes Marlowe and sets the story in modern L.A. If you're a Raymond Chandler fan--classic noir, trench coats, fedoras, dames with cigarette holders and .32 automatics in their purses, then here's a mystery that is not like Chandler in every possible way. There is a touch of Chandler's storytelling, but that's coincidental: Ide likes a complicated plot with deceitful, dysfunctional families and so did Chandler.
'The Goodbye Coast' by Joe Ide is exactly like every book Joe Ide has written in his I.Q. series. This young, clever Marlowe is indistinguishable from I.Q., except that his skin is white and he has a different partner. Ide is a fantastic writer and storyteller. His characters are amazing, the snark and humor are delightful, and the plots are complex, layered with emotion and violence. Read this book as a continuation of the I.Q. series, not as a resurrection or Phillip Marlowe.
'The Goodbye Coast' by Joe Ide is exactly like every book Joe Ide has written in his I.Q. series. This young, clever Marlowe is indistinguishable from I.Q., except that his skin is white and he has a different partner. Ide is a fantastic writer and storyteller. His characters are amazing, the snark and humor are delightful, and the plots are complex, layered with emotion and violence. Read this book as a continuation of the I.Q. series, not as a resurrection or Phillip Marlowe.
June 10, 2025
Oh dear, what a mess. This was about as far away from Chandler's Marlowe as Australia is to the North Pole. I get that it's a reworking of this most iconic of detectives updated to the 21st century, but I was hoping there would be at least a hint of Chandler's classic novels in there somewhere. But nope. Zilch
Ide seems more concerned about constantly ramming 21st century referencing down our throats; from social media, to rappers, to movie stars, to slang words that have now made the dictionary, and I just wish he'd left all that crap alone and put more effort into telling a solid mystery. The writing is OK at best, but the plot itself, involving Eastern European gangsters, a miserable and bitter actress, and her emo whiny teen step daughter, amongst other things (he is cramming too much in), was all over the place. Some of the action was so unbelievably stupid; like a British academic involved in the art world, who has never seen a gun in her life, is suddenly taking on gangsters in a shot out. Oh please, just stop it!
I'm only bumping it up a star because I did like Marlowe's Harry Dean Stanton-esque ex-cop dad - who lives out of South Central and drinks his days away moping around in his boxer shorts - as he helps with the case along the way. Hell, I would rather have read a novel solely about him instead.
February 7, 2022
Well, color me tres decu (sorry, can't figure out how to do accents and circumflex). That's Google Translate French for "very disappointed" -- I'm only pretending to be fluent in French, the way Joe Ide is pretending to be fluent in Raymond Chandler. Yuk!
After a rave review from the Wall Street Journal and a very promising first few pages in The Goodbye Coast I thought I'd found a gem -- a new Philip Marlowe tale. Alas, further examination found only ersatz costume jewelry. The book is larded with tangled family relationships more reminiscent of Ross Macdonald than Chandler. There's also an unrelated subplot intended (apparently) only to give Ide's Marlowe a love interest, perhaps for subsequent installments.
Instead of character development, what we're given about Ide's new Marlowe is a slew of flashbacks from his "formative years," a troubled relationship with his father, and a long list of his possessions -- his handmade suit, his 1928 Patek Philippe Tiffany rectangular watch, his Old Forester 1920 Prohibition Style 115-proof bourbon, his picnic-table-with-benches in place of a dining room table. I'm not arguing with the author's use of such details; it's just that he never gives us much else about what makes Marlowe tick. This poor 21st Century reincarnation just seems to stumble along into one scrape after another -- pitfalls Chandler's Marlowe was smart enough not to get into or to get out of without relying on miracles the way Ide's Marlowe does.
Chandler sometimes was faulted for not having the clearest of plots, but Ide isn't a wizard, either, at least not here. Too many characters, too many narrative voices, too many tangents and digressions. And NONE of the sparking use of language that makes Chandler so delightful!
There's much more I could say, but I don't care enough. Just put me down as "not a fan."
After a rave review from the Wall Street Journal and a very promising first few pages in The Goodbye Coast I thought I'd found a gem -- a new Philip Marlowe tale. Alas, further examination found only ersatz costume jewelry. The book is larded with tangled family relationships more reminiscent of Ross Macdonald than Chandler. There's also an unrelated subplot intended (apparently) only to give Ide's Marlowe a love interest, perhaps for subsequent installments.
Instead of character development, what we're given about Ide's new Marlowe is a slew of flashbacks from his "formative years," a troubled relationship with his father, and a long list of his possessions -- his handmade suit, his 1928 Patek Philippe Tiffany rectangular watch, his Old Forester 1920 Prohibition Style 115-proof bourbon, his picnic-table-with-benches in place of a dining room table. I'm not arguing with the author's use of such details; it's just that he never gives us much else about what makes Marlowe tick. This poor 21st Century reincarnation just seems to stumble along into one scrape after another -- pitfalls Chandler's Marlowe was smart enough not to get into or to get out of without relying on miracles the way Ide's Marlowe does.
Chandler sometimes was faulted for not having the clearest of plots, but Ide isn't a wizard, either, at least not here. Too many characters, too many narrative voices, too many tangents and digressions. And NONE of the sparking use of language that makes Chandler so delightful!
There's much more I could say, but I don't care enough. Just put me down as "not a fan."
March 1, 2022
Marlowe is back! Rejoice fans of the iconic private investigator from the books of Raymond Chandler. In The Goodbye Coast he’s reimagined in modern day Los Angeles by highly acclaimed novelist Joe Ide ( EE-day) of the beloved and unique IQ series, featuring private investigator, Isaiah Quintabe.
Ide imbues Marlowe with a gift for observation and deduction. Marlowe notices what most people don’t and assimilates and deduces connections veiled in ambiguity. A veritable sleuthing guru. His narrative epitomizes the hard boiled crime fiction of the 1920s. Ide maintains the same “tough guy” detective, who loves his “top notch” bourbon and smokes Camel cigarettes, but, unlike the Marlowe of lore, he enjoys his vices in moderation, rather than excess. This Marlowe also is not fooled by the femme fatales, and recognizes them for their true motivations and foibles.
The present day Los Angeles provides an atmospheric backdrop, filled with scheming and sordid Hollywood people, brutal gangsters, the mentally ill and poor, the homeless, and the ubiquitous inequality.
Ide provides Marlowe with a unique back story. Highlighted by a contentious relationship with his decorated LAPD homicide detective father, Emmet. Marlowe aspired to also be a cop—a detective, like his father. But, as his father predicted, he washed-out of the police academy after three weeks, due to his attitude.He couldn’t follow orders, nor accept authority and disrespected the officer in charge.
Marlowe’s next career choice involved apprenticing as a private investigator with an ex-detective and old friend of Emmet. Thus he gained experience and ultimately his license. As his mother, Addie, was fighting Ovarian cancer, Emmet began drinking heavily and with her death this accelerated. He disregarded pleas to seek treatment.
Marlowe meets his client, movie star Kendra James, at her posh, sprawling Malibu estate on the water. Kendra is a notoriously nasty diva, that thinks nothing of destroying careers and reputations—she herself an almost washed-up actress with little in the way of new parts.Marlowe has an obvious dislike for her, and the wealthy with their power and privilege, and excess.Nonetheless, he listens to her story and accepts the case of finding her missing step-daughter Cody.Her ex-husbandand failed director, Terry was murdered, shot to death on the beach.Cody ran away two weeks ago without further contact.Kendra is “very worried” and Marlowe’s “bull-shit” meter is going crazy.Kendra describes Cody as being spoiled rotten, secretive, smart but devious.She is slender, pretty and typically dresses in Emo goth garb, and has short, dyed black hair and green eyes.Kendra comments to Marlowe, that his reputation precedes him, as being at best prickly, and somewhat of a rude, impolite boor.
Marlowe, unfazed, strikes a dapper pose in his handmade, dove-gray suit, black silk tie, brilliant white Egyptian cotton shirt and expensive, impeccable oxfords, and drives away in his three hundred and forty-nine horsepower, Mustang GT. Marlowe didn’t have much use for guns, His 9mm Sig was safely nestled in a covered frying pan, on the top of his stove at his office / home.
As Marlowe starts his investigation and following down multiple leads, everything pointed to a linkage involving the motivation for Terry’s murder. He was unfortunately known in the industry and a “one-hit” wonder, followed by a string of losers. Reportedly he was planning a “comeback” movie and had obtained funding…. possibly from the Russians or the Armenians. Nothing good can come from this scenario. While investigating he reluctantly is tasked with a second client, Ren Stewart. She was married for seven years to Fallon, and a victim of a whirlwind romance. On a regular visit, six weeks ago, he kidnapped their son, Jeremy, and their savings and fled from England to Hollywood. Fallon was an aspiring actor, who met with little success at home. ( Only Joe Ide could somehow conjure up the image of the psychotic Chihuahua, from the popular and often inappropriate cartoon: Ren and Stimpy, on the basis of Marlowe’s clients first name ) . Ide expertly intertwines the two investigations, that somehow collide in significance.
Joe Ide proves to be a masterful storyteller as he uses fantastic multidimensional characterizations and intricate plotting and prose to effortlessly fashion a twisted and complex narrative, that escalates to a powerful denouement – satisfying, and yet, having the reader yearn for more. He concocts a brew of viciousness, depravity and evil as Marlowe plows through the seamy underbelly of Los Angles, involving both the glitz, glamour and the Skid Row portions, where the impoverished, homeless, addicted, and mentally ill dwell. To complement his ingenious plotting, Ide inserts witty banter and social commentary to propel the story forward. His characters are no mere caricatures, but real life beings that will remain with the reader long after the last page is turned. I personally do not envision this Marlowe as Humphrey Bogart, ala The Big Sleep, but rather James Garner, from the 1969 movie, “Marlowe” ( which was based upon Chandler’s 1949 novel: The Little Sister ). Hopefully, Marlowe will continue to grow and struggle in further adventures penned by the amazing Joe Ide.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.
Ide imbues Marlowe with a gift for observation and deduction. Marlowe notices what most people don’t and assimilates and deduces connections veiled in ambiguity. A veritable sleuthing guru. His narrative epitomizes the hard boiled crime fiction of the 1920s. Ide maintains the same “tough guy” detective, who loves his “top notch” bourbon and smokes Camel cigarettes, but, unlike the Marlowe of lore, he enjoys his vices in moderation, rather than excess. This Marlowe also is not fooled by the femme fatales, and recognizes them for their true motivations and foibles.
The present day Los Angeles provides an atmospheric backdrop, filled with scheming and sordid Hollywood people, brutal gangsters, the mentally ill and poor, the homeless, and the ubiquitous inequality.
Ide provides Marlowe with a unique back story. Highlighted by a contentious relationship with his decorated LAPD homicide detective father, Emmet. Marlowe aspired to also be a cop—a detective, like his father. But, as his father predicted, he washed-out of the police academy after three weeks, due to his attitude.He couldn’t follow orders, nor accept authority and disrespected the officer in charge.
Marlowe’s next career choice involved apprenticing as a private investigator with an ex-detective and old friend of Emmet. Thus he gained experience and ultimately his license. As his mother, Addie, was fighting Ovarian cancer, Emmet began drinking heavily and with her death this accelerated. He disregarded pleas to seek treatment.
Marlowe meets his client, movie star Kendra James, at her posh, sprawling Malibu estate on the water. Kendra is a notoriously nasty diva, that thinks nothing of destroying careers and reputations—she herself an almost washed-up actress with little in the way of new parts.Marlowe has an obvious dislike for her, and the wealthy with their power and privilege, and excess.Nonetheless, he listens to her story and accepts the case of finding her missing step-daughter Cody.Her ex-husbandand failed director, Terry was murdered, shot to death on the beach.Cody ran away two weeks ago without further contact.Kendra is “very worried” and Marlowe’s “bull-shit” meter is going crazy.Kendra describes Cody as being spoiled rotten, secretive, smart but devious.She is slender, pretty and typically dresses in Emo goth garb, and has short, dyed black hair and green eyes.Kendra comments to Marlowe, that his reputation precedes him, as being at best prickly, and somewhat of a rude, impolite boor.
Marlowe, unfazed, strikes a dapper pose in his handmade, dove-gray suit, black silk tie, brilliant white Egyptian cotton shirt and expensive, impeccable oxfords, and drives away in his three hundred and forty-nine horsepower, Mustang GT. Marlowe didn’t have much use for guns, His 9mm Sig was safely nestled in a covered frying pan, on the top of his stove at his office / home.
As Marlowe starts his investigation and following down multiple leads, everything pointed to a linkage involving the motivation for Terry’s murder. He was unfortunately known in the industry and a “one-hit” wonder, followed by a string of losers. Reportedly he was planning a “comeback” movie and had obtained funding…. possibly from the Russians or the Armenians. Nothing good can come from this scenario. While investigating he reluctantly is tasked with a second client, Ren Stewart. She was married for seven years to Fallon, and a victim of a whirlwind romance. On a regular visit, six weeks ago, he kidnapped their son, Jeremy, and their savings and fled from England to Hollywood. Fallon was an aspiring actor, who met with little success at home. ( Only Joe Ide could somehow conjure up the image of the psychotic Chihuahua, from the popular and often inappropriate cartoon: Ren and Stimpy, on the basis of Marlowe’s clients first name ) . Ide expertly intertwines the two investigations, that somehow collide in significance.
Joe Ide proves to be a masterful storyteller as he uses fantastic multidimensional characterizations and intricate plotting and prose to effortlessly fashion a twisted and complex narrative, that escalates to a powerful denouement – satisfying, and yet, having the reader yearn for more. He concocts a brew of viciousness, depravity and evil as Marlowe plows through the seamy underbelly of Los Angles, involving both the glitz, glamour and the Skid Row portions, where the impoverished, homeless, addicted, and mentally ill dwell. To complement his ingenious plotting, Ide inserts witty banter and social commentary to propel the story forward. His characters are no mere caricatures, but real life beings that will remain with the reader long after the last page is turned. I personally do not envision this Marlowe as Humphrey Bogart, ala The Big Sleep, but rather James Garner, from the 1969 movie, “Marlowe” ( which was based upon Chandler’s 1949 novel: The Little Sister ). Hopefully, Marlowe will continue to grow and struggle in further adventures penned by the amazing Joe Ide.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.
April 8, 2022
Exciting
Phillip Marlow, an interesting detective I must say. Well written but not a spectacular story. I liked the killer not being revealed until near the ending which led a lot of excitement to this story. If you like regular detective books this book may be for you.
Phillip Marlow, an interesting detective I must say. Well written but not a spectacular story. I liked the killer not being revealed until near the ending which led a lot of excitement to this story. If you like regular detective books this book may be for you.
March 27, 2022
75% done and I'm giving up. Really poor for several reasons. Feels just like an IQ novel with the names changed, though none of the things that made IQ somewhat interesting as a character carry over to this incarnation of Marlowe. In fact, I couldn't really pick out anything that defines Marlowe's character in The Goodbye Coast as he meanders though an annoyingly large cast of equally uninspiring supporting characters.
Maybe it was naïve of me to expect more than stock characters and stereotypes in a modern day version of a hardboiled noir detective novel, but you at least hope for some exciting original dialogue to keep things moving. Instead, the spoilt teenager, the retired cop, the fading movie star and the LA gangster all speak in trite phrases with a bizarrely chosen scattering of 2010s/20s pop culture references thrown in for good measure. This really has put me off going near any Joe Ide in the future.
Maybe it was naïve of me to expect more than stock characters and stereotypes in a modern day version of a hardboiled noir detective novel, but you at least hope for some exciting original dialogue to keep things moving. Instead, the spoilt teenager, the retired cop, the fading movie star and the LA gangster all speak in trite phrases with a bizarrely chosen scattering of 2010s/20s pop culture references thrown in for good measure. This really has put me off going near any Joe Ide in the future.
May 22, 2022
Emmet Marlowe was a decorated LAPD homicide detective until a few years ago when his wife died of cancer. Since then Emmet has given in to drink and his life continued it's downhill slide along with the relationship with his son Philip Marlowe. At first Marlowe wanted to follow in his fathers footsteps and become a detective but his family soon found out that Marlowe was not cut out for the job. Ten years later Marlowe is a private detective and against his better judgment takes on two cases at the same time. The first, tyrannical Hollywood starlet Kendra's stepdaughter has gone missing. Second a British mother, Ren has come to Hollywood looking for her son who has been stolen by his father. As the two cases come together nothing is as it seems. I thought a little to much attention was paid to background information on the characters which made for a few too many characters, that weren't part of the story to keep track of. Also Ren gets herself caught in a trap trying to find her son after Marlowe warned her not to go and to wait for him then finds herself in trouble and needs help getting out of harms way then turns around and finds herself caught in another trap. She couldn't learn her lesson the first time? While I know most mothers would try and do almost anything to get their child back, but to not learn your lesson the first time around was a bit of a stretch for me. Thank You to Joe Ide and Mulholland Books for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
March 5, 2022
I'm a fan of the Raymond Chandler books and stories, and I enjoyed Lawrence Osborne's Philip Marlowe novel, Only to Sleep. This one starts off with great promise, bringing Marlowe into the present day. I enjoyed the first few chapters, but then I began to feel like the author lost interest in Marlowe himself as the PI became a minor character in his own book. Ultimately it isn't really a Marlowe story at all, really, doesn't feel anything like Chandler, and I didn't think it was very good--way too many characters bound up by multiple family relationships that comes across as unfocused. Pretty disappointing. And: does Joe Ide get product placement compensation? Some of the product descriptions in the book feel like ad copy.
March 23, 2023
Moving away from his IQ series, Joe Ide has taken on a modernized Philip Marlowe, of the classic Raymond Chandler fame. The current day Marlowe is still a PI, a quiet loner with an ambivalent relationship with his father, a renowned LAPD detective who is currently on mandatory leave to deal with his alcoholism.
Against his better judgment, Marlowe takes on investigating the disappearance of a faded movie star’s teenage stepdaughter. Her disappearance coincided with the murder of her father, the movie star’s husband. She was easily located but is tangled up in a plot with her boyfriend in which she is suspected of obtaining money that an Armenian gang believes is rightfully theirs. At the same time a beautiful British author pleads with Marlowe to find her 7 year old son who has been abducted by her ex husband who has a serious gambling problem. This book has it all-Russian mobsters, violence, corruption, Hollywood sleaze. In sorting through all of this and trying not to be killed himself, Marlowe reluctantly requires the assistance of his father who shelters teenage Cody and attempts to set her on the right path while being half in the bag most of the time. There are no likeable characters in the story but you will find yourself rooting for Marlowe and his Dad, Emmett.
Against his better judgment, Marlowe takes on investigating the disappearance of a faded movie star’s teenage stepdaughter. Her disappearance coincided with the murder of her father, the movie star’s husband. She was easily located but is tangled up in a plot with her boyfriend in which she is suspected of obtaining money that an Armenian gang believes is rightfully theirs. At the same time a beautiful British author pleads with Marlowe to find her 7 year old son who has been abducted by her ex husband who has a serious gambling problem. This book has it all-Russian mobsters, violence, corruption, Hollywood sleaze. In sorting through all of this and trying not to be killed himself, Marlowe reluctantly requires the assistance of his father who shelters teenage Cody and attempts to set her on the right path while being half in the bag most of the time. There are no likeable characters in the story but you will find yourself rooting for Marlowe and his Dad, Emmett.
February 23, 2022
Alternative Universe Marlowe
Review of the Little, Brown and Company audiobook narrated by Vikas Adam, released simultaneously with the Mulholland Books hardcover (February 1, 2022)
[3.5 rounded up]
The intermittent Philip Marlowe continuation series hasn't received very much attention on Goodreads. GR's series canon only includes Robert B. Parker's completion of Poodle Springs (1989) as #9 and it confuses things by adding Raymond Chandler's short story collection Trouble Is My Business (1939) as #8 and then repeats the story The Finger Man (1934) as if it was #10.
Meanwhile, the Raymond Chandler Estate has authorized several continuation efforts including Parker's Perchance to Dream (1990 - call it Philip Marlowe (PM) novel #9), Benjamin Black's The Black-Eyed Blonde (2014 - PM novel #10), Lawrence Osborne's Only to Sleep (2018 - PM novel #11) and now Joe Ide's The Goodbye Coast (2022 - PM novel #12).
Ide is a good candidate for the continuation as he has made a solid reputation with his urban noir series featuring Isaiah "IQ" Quintabe (2016 to 2021, and ongoing). He makes a radical leap in the character and the chronology of the series though by inventing a contemporary protagonist named Philip Marlowe with no apparent other ties to the original iconic hard-boiled detective, aside from the name and the profession. Then there is a further twist where the new Marlowe's father Emmett Marlowe, a suspended LAPD veteran , is actually the more hard-boiled character of the two.
So if you can buy into all of that, The Goodbye Coast is a reasonable contemporary noir that does riff on some of the standard Chandler tropes, i.e. the unlikeable client, the femme fatale, the seemingly confusing motives, the apparent random murders, the shady plot behind the scenes etc.
Our present day detective Marlowe is hired to find the runaway wild child 17-year-old daughter Cody of washed up actress Kendra James and washed up film director Terry James. In a subplot he is also enlisted to find the abducted child of Ren, an British divorcee. The best parts of the book were the fireworks between father Emmett and firecracker Cody when Marlowe asks his dad to watch over the wild child and keep her in protective custody while Marlowe tries to sort out the threats to her. The Armenian and Russian mobs put in solid terrorizing cameo appearances. It is all somewhat confused until all the pieces fall into place in the last 25% of the book or so, when it becomes very noir indeed.
So, it is a bit of a mixed bag, it is definitely not your grandfather's (great-grandfather's?) Philip Marlowe, but it is a good contemporary hard-boiled noir fiction regardless. The narration by Vikas Adam in the audiobook edition was excellent.
Trivia and Link
Author Joe Ide was interviewed on February 9, 2022 by the Poisoned Pen Bookstore about his new Philip Marlowe novel and you can watch it on YouTube here.
Review of the Little, Brown and Company audiobook narrated by Vikas Adam, released simultaneously with the Mulholland Books hardcover (February 1, 2022)
[3.5 rounded up]
The intermittent Philip Marlowe continuation series hasn't received very much attention on Goodreads. GR's series canon only includes Robert B. Parker's completion of Poodle Springs (1989) as #9 and it confuses things by adding Raymond Chandler's short story collection Trouble Is My Business (1939) as #8 and then repeats the story The Finger Man (1934) as if it was #10.
Meanwhile, the Raymond Chandler Estate has authorized several continuation efforts including Parker's Perchance to Dream (1990 - call it Philip Marlowe (PM) novel #9), Benjamin Black's The Black-Eyed Blonde (2014 - PM novel #10), Lawrence Osborne's Only to Sleep (2018 - PM novel #11) and now Joe Ide's The Goodbye Coast (2022 - PM novel #12).
Ide is a good candidate for the continuation as he has made a solid reputation with his urban noir series featuring Isaiah "IQ" Quintabe (2016 to 2021, and ongoing). He makes a radical leap in the character and the chronology of the series though by inventing a contemporary protagonist named Philip Marlowe with no apparent other ties to the original iconic hard-boiled detective, aside from the name and the profession. Then there is a further twist where the new Marlowe's father Emmett Marlowe, a suspended LAPD veteran , is actually the more hard-boiled character of the two.
So if you can buy into all of that, The Goodbye Coast is a reasonable contemporary noir that does riff on some of the standard Chandler tropes, i.e. the unlikeable client, the femme fatale, the seemingly confusing motives, the apparent random murders, the shady plot behind the scenes etc.
Our present day detective Marlowe is hired to find the runaway wild child 17-year-old daughter Cody of washed up actress Kendra James and washed up film director Terry James. In a subplot he is also enlisted to find the abducted child of Ren, an British divorcee. The best parts of the book were the fireworks between father Emmett and firecracker Cody when Marlowe asks his dad to watch over the wild child and keep her in protective custody while Marlowe tries to sort out the threats to her. The Armenian and Russian mobs put in solid terrorizing cameo appearances. It is all somewhat confused until all the pieces fall into place in the last 25% of the book or so, when it becomes very noir indeed.
So, it is a bit of a mixed bag, it is definitely not your grandfather's (great-grandfather's?) Philip Marlowe, but it is a good contemporary hard-boiled noir fiction regardless. The narration by Vikas Adam in the audiobook edition was excellent.
Trivia and Link
Author Joe Ide was interviewed on February 9, 2022 by the Poisoned Pen Bookstore about his new Philip Marlowe novel and you can watch it on YouTube here.
February 26, 2022
I’ve liked the IQ series from Joe Ide, although I thought the last one, Smoke, was way too over the top. It approached melodrama rather than good fiction. The same thing affects this “Marlowe” novel from Mr. Ide. It’s a silly, stupid book. The characters are cardboard and nowhere close to actual Philip Marlowe authenticity. The characters constantly do stupid things, while some are also doing evil things. The only characters I liked were Emmett, a bit overblown as a drunk cop on suspension, and Ren. Ren is a British literature teacher, but OMG put a shotgun in hand and wow! Like I said, overblown. At one point, Marlowe muses about Cody: “All this work, uncertainty and hair-raising danger on behalf of a seventeen-year-old reprobate with no more conscience than a praying mantis.” All this work on a book just to portray this insidious character just did not justify a high ranking from me. Rather than a moody, atmospheric novel charged with believable characters, Mr. Ide has chosen to blow past any resemblance to craft. The last few chapters deal Noah a fate that sealed my disdain for this book. I understand that this character is a recreation living in modern LA, and not a continuation of a character such as Ace Atkins has done with Robert B. Parker's Spenser books. But it just doesn’t work for me. I’m not sure what arrangement he has with the Raymond Chandler estate, if indeed he has one at all, but if there is an estate, they ought to sue for desecrating the notion of “Philip Marlowe” with this paper thin tripe.
February 3, 2022
Really poor. No style; the characterization and plotting are chaotic; the Chandler estate should sue.
Ide caught lighting in a bottle (or had an excellent editor once) for the first IQ novel but it’s been downhill from there.
Ide caught lighting in a bottle (or had an excellent editor once) for the first IQ novel but it’s been downhill from there.
February 12, 2022
Don’t bother..it’s not Marlowe, and definitely not Chandler.
Apparently, I need to use at least 19 words to review this.. Well, I’ve used them, but they’re wasted. Don’t.
Apparently, I need to use at least 19 words to review this.. Well, I’ve used them, but they’re wasted. Don’t.
August 21, 2023
This book is about Philip Marlowe, only he is reinvented to our modern times. Where 007 gets away with this feat this Marlowe does not.
Philip Marlowe is also a PI and his father an alcoholic and legendary policeman. Yes you read that right.
Marlowe has to find a teenager who has an unmistakable knack for getting herself into trouble but as her father was murdered she gets some credit. We will meet the Albanian and Russian maffia but you’ll need to read the book to find out who wants to kill the girl.
Like the reinvention of the Shadow this one is Ill conceived as both characters are best served in their own timelines.
While the story is decent it is abso-bloody-lutely NO Philip Marlowe as created by Raymond Chandler book, it is a fellow with the same name and profession and that is all.
I had to rewrite this review as the GR app did make it seem that I read this book 4 times in two different versions of the book. Whirl It is certainly true I have got two editions, one got lost in the mail and was received three months later, and I re-ordered a copy before the lost book was also received. I decided to remove all 4 copies from my reading list and redo the review. Which might be a bit harsher due to the fact I read Denise Mina’s take on Marlowe which is far better in my humble opinion.
Philip Marlowe is also a PI and his father an alcoholic and legendary policeman. Yes you read that right.
Marlowe has to find a teenager who has an unmistakable knack for getting herself into trouble but as her father was murdered she gets some credit. We will meet the Albanian and Russian maffia but you’ll need to read the book to find out who wants to kill the girl.
Like the reinvention of the Shadow this one is Ill conceived as both characters are best served in their own timelines.
While the story is decent it is abso-bloody-lutely NO Philip Marlowe as created by Raymond Chandler book, it is a fellow with the same name and profession and that is all.
I had to rewrite this review as the GR app did make it seem that I read this book 4 times in two different versions of the book. Whirl It is certainly true I have got two editions, one got lost in the mail and was received three months later, and I re-ordered a copy before the lost book was also received. I decided to remove all 4 copies from my reading list and redo the review. Which might be a bit harsher due to the fact I read Denise Mina’s take on Marlowe which is far better in my humble opinion.
March 5, 2022
I love Joe IDE. I love Joe IDE's IQ series of books. They have been such a fresh take on the PI genre with an African American youth from the mean streets blessed with a stratospheric IQ turning into a sort of investigative hero to every man and woman around him. Sure, the plots can occasionally veer into the farcical, but they are always entertaining.
Joe IDE's Phillip Marlowe is a let down. I can't pin a style on this protagonist and while never a reader of the original Marlowe series, I can't imagine this Mish Mash of a character has done him any favours.
The book is full of a multitude of reprehensible characters, with some you are somehow supposed to come to love despite their behaviour and ... I just can't. I don't think I liked anyone, certainly not Marlowe who comes across as a two dimensional pasta noodle with somewhat less backbone.
I persevered, simply because Mr IDE's previous books have been so enjoyable. I guess I was hoping for perhaps a fabulous resolution to tidy it all up, but the whole thing just felt like padding to get through a couple of hundred pages. I spent the final 50 or so pages thinking of what I'd need on this week's shopping list.
Sorry - not for me.
Joe IDE's Phillip Marlowe is a let down. I can't pin a style on this protagonist and while never a reader of the original Marlowe series, I can't imagine this Mish Mash of a character has done him any favours.
The book is full of a multitude of reprehensible characters, with some you are somehow supposed to come to love despite their behaviour and ... I just can't. I don't think I liked anyone, certainly not Marlowe who comes across as a two dimensional pasta noodle with somewhat less backbone.
I persevered, simply because Mr IDE's previous books have been so enjoyable. I guess I was hoping for perhaps a fabulous resolution to tidy it all up, but the whole thing just felt like padding to get through a couple of hundred pages. I spent the final 50 or so pages thinking of what I'd need on this week's shopping list.
Sorry - not for me.
May 9, 2022
Let's get the Philip Marlowe stuff out of the way right away in any discussion of THE GOODBYE COAST. No, this isn't Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. No, it isn't Robert Parker's, either, or even Lawrence Osborne. It's Joe Ide's, which means this Marlowe is wholly the creature of its GOODBYE COAST creator. If you needed or wanted the "But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid" version of Marlowe, we;;, you're out of luck, and further, that expectation is, in my opinion, no basis for a negative review; that's a problem that's between between you and you.
So, what of this heretofore unrecognizable Philip Marlowe? I didn't like him. Or anybody else in this book. Nor did I like the book itself. That doesn't mean it's a bad book; it's just one that felt like swimming against a Zuma Beach rip because the plot was too busy, the characters too familiar and faceless, and there's a sense of smug self-satisfaction in the Marlowe narrative that, despite its occasional apathetic nods at humility, had me a perpetual half-second away from closing the cover forever (that is, before I finally did, in a way, abandoning the story and just skimming so I could cherry-pick choice bits of phraseology until even that got tiresome). At one point, a teen girl declares: "This is so messed up," and that may be the boldest meta-criticism in the entire rambling, shambling color wheel of a book.
I kinda knew what I was getting with Joe Ide, based on having read a couple of his pretty good IQ novels: a world full of Elmore Leonard-esque L.A. cats who are all sort of slouchy and jivey and inside the joke, half of them half-smart, half willing to kill and half unable to even if they're willing. Everybody knows what's what even when they don't, whether they're reclusive stars or retired cops or recalcitrant children or Russian mobsters, and they all sort of blend into each other as a result, chasing a fortune in cash as a cast of dozens like a noir-tinged IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, but in a sleek and semi-stylized and even substantive way, and some of the characters — and their best lines — burn in the sun and some fade like old photographs under the sun's glare. Not the least of which is the anodyne Marlowe and his Rocky Rockford-esque father, Emmet, who bicker like two people sharing a rock of crack.
What I did like were the occasional bits of stick-the-landing lines and stray slices of sublime human observation (amid many fallen-soufflé similes and twisted-metallic metaphors). Ide is no Chandler, though he's got some of Chandler's eye and ear for stiletto-sharp satire, however unevenly applied. I'll share a sampling; see if you can decide what works here and what doesn't. (Chandler was capable of cringey writing, too, and not even Leonard stuck the landing 100% of the time.) There are some good ones here, but there are others that make you feel attacked by an army of Autotuned drones in Coachella color splatters.
“I’ll tell you, kid, the detective job isn’t exactly like that. I mean the heroic stuff comes up now and then but most of the time, you’re looking for a lost horse or working undercover at Burger King or searching a junkyard for an heirloom bedpan.”
"Driving from Hollywood to Malibu and back again was the same as being dead for three hours."
"Marlowe’s potential new client was Kendra James, a full-on movie star and all that implied. Homes here and abroad, Bentley and a Prius in the garage, the latter to show her concern for the environment, vacations in Ibiza, on Lake Como and Richard Branson’s private island and a personal trainer named Steely Dan who sometimes stayed over."
"Marlowe had an innate dislike for the wealthy. Their power, privilege, their firewall of conscienceless attorneys, their wretched excess. Marlowe liked nice things but not immoderately, not over-the-top. Somehow, this made him a better person but he wasn’t sure how."
"Marlowe's quiet intensity was appealing. He reminded her a little of Steve McQueen if Steve McQueen had been a rude, insolent a**hole."
"Kendra sighed, apparently annoyed by all the civility. She looks like Grace Kelly without the grace, thought Marlowe. Aristocratic features and soft blonde hair, keen blue eyes, her lips artificially plumped, her body teetering between fashionably sexy and she should lose a few pounds."
"Marlowe didn’t like being here. The room was like a Goodwill store in Dubai."
"Marlowe’s neighbor Mr. Mendoza had told him gentrification was coming to Hollywood Boulevard but somebody mugged it along the way."
"His driver’s license photo revealed a young man with bad acne, big ears and pink bangs fringing his wide, sweaty forehead. He had a confused expression, like he’d walked into the wrong house. He was an assistant manager at Jiffy Lube. A baby daddy if there ever was one."
"Emmet reminded his son of Harry Dean Stanton. All scrawny and disjointed, like his skeleton had been assembled from leftover parts and not enough screws. The door opened. Emmet was in his boxer shorts, scowling, his legs like hairy chicken bones. For no apparent reason, he was wearing a hideous Hawaiian shirt. It looked like a family of parrots were trying to kill each other."
"Yeah, must be hard living out there in Malibu. Walk out your front door and you could get sh*t on by a sandpiper.”
"He didn’t like reading from a tablet or a phone. It was like looking at your hand or being in church, reciting something from the Bible."
"Cody came in wearing full makeup, black jeans and a black T-shirt and carrying a bag covered in colorful beads. Is this how you dress up these days? Emmet thought. What happened to dresses and sweaters and bags that didn’t look like a gay Apache’s rucksack?"
"Bel Air was an extremely wealthy but not very diverse community. Eighty-some percent was white, a smattering of Asians, possibly three or four Latinos, Jay-Z and Magic Johnson. The gate was at Sunset and Bellagio. A guardhouse was there so you’d think you needed a pass to get in."
"Showbiz folks can smell dejection and failure. They avoid them like gluten, tract houses and commuter hotels."
"The Venice Beach boardwalk was crowded with tourists. The smells of popcorn, suntan lotion and hot dog water were cut with a sea breeze. Marlowe liked visiting places he hadn’t seen in a while—to check out the changes, feel the vibe, see if he could spot the sketchy characters, the ones looking too hard at handbags, purses and cash registers. Marlowe moved past the usual assortment of souvenir stalls, T-shirt shops, tattoo parlors, tables of homemade trinkets and bad art, street performers, food vendors and eccentrics. If you want to roller-skate in a neon thong or dress up like a Bedouin Hells Angel, have at it."
"He was breathing like a Pomeranian in Florida."
"This man is dumber than the dumbest man in Wyoming, and they’ve got an unbeatable selection."
"The Asian man had a crew cut, nerd glasses and a squished face like someone had stepped on a soda can."
"Some perfectly reasonable, intelligent girls were irresistibly drawn to tall Alpha males with symmetrical features and a commanding, even obnoxious personality. Marlowe was familiar because he’d been one.
“Moving her will be like taking a wolverine to the dentist.”
“I loathe you, Marlowe. If you were a flea I’d kill the dog.”
So, what of this heretofore unrecognizable Philip Marlowe? I didn't like him. Or anybody else in this book. Nor did I like the book itself. That doesn't mean it's a bad book; it's just one that felt like swimming against a Zuma Beach rip because the plot was too busy, the characters too familiar and faceless, and there's a sense of smug self-satisfaction in the Marlowe narrative that, despite its occasional apathetic nods at humility, had me a perpetual half-second away from closing the cover forever (that is, before I finally did, in a way, abandoning the story and just skimming so I could cherry-pick choice bits of phraseology until even that got tiresome). At one point, a teen girl declares: "This is so messed up," and that may be the boldest meta-criticism in the entire rambling, shambling color wheel of a book.
I kinda knew what I was getting with Joe Ide, based on having read a couple of his pretty good IQ novels: a world full of Elmore Leonard-esque L.A. cats who are all sort of slouchy and jivey and inside the joke, half of them half-smart, half willing to kill and half unable to even if they're willing. Everybody knows what's what even when they don't, whether they're reclusive stars or retired cops or recalcitrant children or Russian mobsters, and they all sort of blend into each other as a result, chasing a fortune in cash as a cast of dozens like a noir-tinged IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, but in a sleek and semi-stylized and even substantive way, and some of the characters — and their best lines — burn in the sun and some fade like old photographs under the sun's glare. Not the least of which is the anodyne Marlowe and his Rocky Rockford-esque father, Emmet, who bicker like two people sharing a rock of crack.
What I did like were the occasional bits of stick-the-landing lines and stray slices of sublime human observation (amid many fallen-soufflé similes and twisted-metallic metaphors). Ide is no Chandler, though he's got some of Chandler's eye and ear for stiletto-sharp satire, however unevenly applied. I'll share a sampling; see if you can decide what works here and what doesn't. (Chandler was capable of cringey writing, too, and not even Leonard stuck the landing 100% of the time.) There are some good ones here, but there are others that make you feel attacked by an army of Autotuned drones in Coachella color splatters.
“I’ll tell you, kid, the detective job isn’t exactly like that. I mean the heroic stuff comes up now and then but most of the time, you’re looking for a lost horse or working undercover at Burger King or searching a junkyard for an heirloom bedpan.”
"Driving from Hollywood to Malibu and back again was the same as being dead for three hours."
"Marlowe’s potential new client was Kendra James, a full-on movie star and all that implied. Homes here and abroad, Bentley and a Prius in the garage, the latter to show her concern for the environment, vacations in Ibiza, on Lake Como and Richard Branson’s private island and a personal trainer named Steely Dan who sometimes stayed over."
"Marlowe had an innate dislike for the wealthy. Their power, privilege, their firewall of conscienceless attorneys, their wretched excess. Marlowe liked nice things but not immoderately, not over-the-top. Somehow, this made him a better person but he wasn’t sure how."
"Marlowe's quiet intensity was appealing. He reminded her a little of Steve McQueen if Steve McQueen had been a rude, insolent a**hole."
"Kendra sighed, apparently annoyed by all the civility. She looks like Grace Kelly without the grace, thought Marlowe. Aristocratic features and soft blonde hair, keen blue eyes, her lips artificially plumped, her body teetering between fashionably sexy and she should lose a few pounds."
"Marlowe didn’t like being here. The room was like a Goodwill store in Dubai."
"Marlowe’s neighbor Mr. Mendoza had told him gentrification was coming to Hollywood Boulevard but somebody mugged it along the way."
"His driver’s license photo revealed a young man with bad acne, big ears and pink bangs fringing his wide, sweaty forehead. He had a confused expression, like he’d walked into the wrong house. He was an assistant manager at Jiffy Lube. A baby daddy if there ever was one."
"Emmet reminded his son of Harry Dean Stanton. All scrawny and disjointed, like his skeleton had been assembled from leftover parts and not enough screws. The door opened. Emmet was in his boxer shorts, scowling, his legs like hairy chicken bones. For no apparent reason, he was wearing a hideous Hawaiian shirt. It looked like a family of parrots were trying to kill each other."
"Yeah, must be hard living out there in Malibu. Walk out your front door and you could get sh*t on by a sandpiper.”
"He didn’t like reading from a tablet or a phone. It was like looking at your hand or being in church, reciting something from the Bible."
"Cody came in wearing full makeup, black jeans and a black T-shirt and carrying a bag covered in colorful beads. Is this how you dress up these days? Emmet thought. What happened to dresses and sweaters and bags that didn’t look like a gay Apache’s rucksack?"
"Bel Air was an extremely wealthy but not very diverse community. Eighty-some percent was white, a smattering of Asians, possibly three or four Latinos, Jay-Z and Magic Johnson. The gate was at Sunset and Bellagio. A guardhouse was there so you’d think you needed a pass to get in."
"Showbiz folks can smell dejection and failure. They avoid them like gluten, tract houses and commuter hotels."
"The Venice Beach boardwalk was crowded with tourists. The smells of popcorn, suntan lotion and hot dog water were cut with a sea breeze. Marlowe liked visiting places he hadn’t seen in a while—to check out the changes, feel the vibe, see if he could spot the sketchy characters, the ones looking too hard at handbags, purses and cash registers. Marlowe moved past the usual assortment of souvenir stalls, T-shirt shops, tattoo parlors, tables of homemade trinkets and bad art, street performers, food vendors and eccentrics. If you want to roller-skate in a neon thong or dress up like a Bedouin Hells Angel, have at it."
"He was breathing like a Pomeranian in Florida."
"This man is dumber than the dumbest man in Wyoming, and they’ve got an unbeatable selection."
"The Asian man had a crew cut, nerd glasses and a squished face like someone had stepped on a soda can."
"Some perfectly reasonable, intelligent girls were irresistibly drawn to tall Alpha males with symmetrical features and a commanding, even obnoxious personality. Marlowe was familiar because he’d been one.
“Moving her will be like taking a wolverine to the dentist.”
“I loathe you, Marlowe. If you were a flea I’d kill the dog.”
February 6, 2022
I must admit that I am more familiar with Mr. Ide's Isaiah Quintabe than Philip Marlowe. Given Ide's take on Marlowe, it seems that IQ owes a debt to his literary progenitor. Is it terrible then, that I would have really preferred another IQ mystery to this one?
Marlowe's okay, but pretty much everyone else in this novel is a real challenge to like. I can empathize with some of them, but not like. This book is doing double duty as a mystery and an origin story, not always gracefully. The back stories meant to illuminate Marlowe's character sometimes felt wedged in. With all this work to establish character, I wonder if we'll be seeing more of this contemporary Marlowe? I feel that I should read the classic novels for more insight into the character, the series, and Mr. Ide's take on them. Joe Ide is a gifted novelist, so by no means is this an unpleasant read. And the mystery is suitably complex.
I don't want to be one of those readers that seeks to pidgeon-hole an author and only wants to read more of the same thing from them. I can understand wanting to take a creative break from an ongoing series. I'd just have preferred a completely original creation.
Marlowe's okay, but pretty much everyone else in this novel is a real challenge to like. I can empathize with some of them, but not like. This book is doing double duty as a mystery and an origin story, not always gracefully. The back stories meant to illuminate Marlowe's character sometimes felt wedged in. With all this work to establish character, I wonder if we'll be seeing more of this contemporary Marlowe? I feel that I should read the classic novels for more insight into the character, the series, and Mr. Ide's take on them. Joe Ide is a gifted novelist, so by no means is this an unpleasant read. And the mystery is suitably complex.
I don't want to be one of those readers that seeks to pidgeon-hole an author and only wants to read more of the same thing from them. I can understand wanting to take a creative break from an ongoing series. I'd just have preferred a completely original creation.
March 1, 2022
The last time that I read and reviewed a book by Joe Ide, I described it as feeling "overwrought and rushed". This effort, "The Goodbye Coast", got off to a terrific start, laying down a definite "noir" feeling and setting up to an entertaining adventure. Unfortunately, Ide again managed to make the last half of the book frenetic, unfocused, and unsatisfying. To this reader, it seemed like any random thought introduced another side character's odd story without really furthering the plot or the resolution. A "five star" beginning devolved into a barely tolerable finish. Perhaps a fan of Phillip Marlowe would see the parallels and appreciate this as an extension of the genre but, since Marlowe is not my forte, any such connection is lost on me. As a standalone effort, "The Goodbye Coast" was disappointing.
August 21, 2023
It takes a brave man who sets himself up in comparison to Raymond Chandler. In reimagining Marlowe for the modern age Joe Ide does exactly that. The homage was always bound to fall a little short of the peerless original but works as a solid enough caper in itself.
March 14, 2022
When I first met the character that Raymond Chandler (one of the best detective fiction writers of all time) created, Philip Marlowe, he was portrayed on film by Humphrey Bogart in "The Big Sleep" and later by Robert Mitchum in two films, the one I recall seeing was "Farewell My Lovely." He was also portrayed by at least a dozen other actors, in all of the cases I saw, he was the quintessential hard-boiled detective; a man of few words, hard drinking, honorable, straight shooter (literally and figuratively.) This version is by Joe Ide who created the IQ series, a kind of Sherlock Holmesian character transported to modern day East LA. In this case he brings the Marlowe persona up to present day Los Angeles as well. Ide imagines Marlowe as a more urbane type who first appears to us nattily dressed, wearing a "homemade dove grey suit, black silk tie, milky white Egyptian cotton shirt thread count about 180 -200 range..." not at all the rumpled Marlowes I recall from the Chandler books/movies. I notice that those who appeared not to enjoy this novel are mostly complaining that this is not written in Chandler's voice or totally true to the original character. While those reviewers are correct, I don't think it's a fair critique. This is a "reimagining" of the character so it doesn't necessarily have to be entirely loyal to the original, in my view, as long as the plot is interesting, the writing taut, the characters well-developed and on these counts Ide succeeds. The story revolves around two missing persons cases (unrelated, but they intersect around Marlowe.) The main story line features two of the most obnoxious women you'll ever want to meet in fiction, over-the-hill movie star Kendra and her missing stepdaughter Cody. You will have trouble deciding which character is more loathsome and deserving of comeuppance (I gave the edge to Cody.) But the tale is about more than a mystery to be solved. It's mostly about relationships, the main thread being between Marlowe and his alcoholic- policeman- on- leave Father, Emmet. What I like about Ide's Marlowe is that he isn't the traditional detective hero who always outguns/outsmarts the bad guys, but a flawed individual who works hard and is persistent at his craft while making mistakes, miscalculations and occasional bad decisions. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, I have to admit, in one case I had to flip back multiple chapters to refresh my memory. My favorite character, hands down, is a minor one, Basilio, the guy who brought the case to Marlowe. Their interaction at the very end of the book is laugh-out-loud enjoyable reading. If you like detective fiction and enjoy good characters and a fairly fast paced plot, I think you'll appreciate "The Goodbye Coast."
April 6, 2022
Big disappointment!!!
I really enjoy the IQ books, so I thought it was a "no-brainer". Except, the " no-brainer" was the apparent effort in writing this book. Night and day difference between IQ and Marlowe. IQ books are challenging, filled with intrigue. The Marlowe book is filled with trite phrases and situations, and stupidity. Now, I don't know if someone ghosted the IQ books for Ide, or if he farmed out the Marlowe book, because there is no way the same guy wrote both.
I really enjoy the IQ books, so I thought it was a "no-brainer". Except, the " no-brainer" was the apparent effort in writing this book. Night and day difference between IQ and Marlowe. IQ books are challenging, filled with intrigue. The Marlowe book is filled with trite phrases and situations, and stupidity. Now, I don't know if someone ghosted the IQ books for Ide, or if he farmed out the Marlowe book, because there is no way the same guy wrote both.
March 19, 2022
Reads as if the author turned in a 200 page manuscript and someone insisted on a 300 page book. Scenes and characters that go nowhere, Marlowe reduced to bungling along a step behind everyone else, the odd flash of promise but not enough to save it
March 8, 2022
A Phillip Marlowe novel, this is not.
March 31, 2022
I'm likely the only devotee of the crime novel genre who has never cracked a Raymond Chandler book. So, although I've seen Philip Marlowe referenced many times in what I've read I have no preconceived notions of how Joe Ide has chosen to portray, or pay homage, or whatever it is he's trying to do with Marlowe in "The Goodbye Coast". However, I am a huge Joe Ide fan via his IQ series and his version of Philip Marlowe is an interesting cat, indeed.
Marlowe's situation is thus: he's a PI with 10 years experience in LA, he's sort of a 'lone wolf' who lives in an oddly accessorized apartment, his dad Emmet is a widowed legendary LA cop with a drinking problem who's currently on suspension, and he works by referral. In 'The Goodbye Coast', he tackles 2 missing person cases that expose him to everything (bad) LA has to offer: drugs, gangs, entitled rich folks, movie folk, scammers..... you know the drill. Plus everyone, and I mean everyone, lies. The first case is a doozy: the young, hip. beautiful daughter of a has-been actress whose husband was murdered is missing. She actually wasn't that hard to find, but that's only the start of the fun. The second involves a young boy who has been kidnapped from his mother by her estranged husband. This one is a bit more challenging, hampered in part by the amount of effort Marlowe is forced to expend on the first case.
There's no way to review The Goodbye Coast in my preferred short form, so suffice to say that the young lady in Marlowe's initial case is trouble with a capital T. She's somehow involved in some hairy stuff (if you consider murder, drugs, money laundering, and things like that hairy...) but the extent to which she is is slowly exposed. Marlowe's 2nd search wasn't quite as complicated and was more of a true 'missing person' variety, finally closed off at the conclusion after Marlowe has a brainstorm. In all the action, Marlowe's dad provides solid support and experience when he's not in an alcohol-induced stupor.
I really enjoy Ide's writing. It's sparse, has humorous asides and insights, and doesn't take itself too seriously while describing serious topics. My sole complaint with The Goodbye Coast is with the sheer amount of 'stuff' going on. There are lots of characters, a couple different plots, the action switches sometimes between current and past, and things move quickly. I really enjoyed the characters and think that this Marlowe guy may have a future....
Marlowe's situation is thus: he's a PI with 10 years experience in LA, he's sort of a 'lone wolf' who lives in an oddly accessorized apartment, his dad Emmet is a widowed legendary LA cop with a drinking problem who's currently on suspension, and he works by referral. In 'The Goodbye Coast', he tackles 2 missing person cases that expose him to everything (bad) LA has to offer: drugs, gangs, entitled rich folks, movie folk, scammers..... you know the drill. Plus everyone, and I mean everyone, lies. The first case is a doozy: the young, hip. beautiful daughter of a has-been actress whose husband was murdered is missing. She actually wasn't that hard to find, but that's only the start of the fun. The second involves a young boy who has been kidnapped from his mother by her estranged husband. This one is a bit more challenging, hampered in part by the amount of effort Marlowe is forced to expend on the first case.
There's no way to review The Goodbye Coast in my preferred short form, so suffice to say that the young lady in Marlowe's initial case is trouble with a capital T. She's somehow involved in some hairy stuff (if you consider murder, drugs, money laundering, and things like that hairy...) but the extent to which she is is slowly exposed. Marlowe's 2nd search wasn't quite as complicated and was more of a true 'missing person' variety, finally closed off at the conclusion after Marlowe has a brainstorm. In all the action, Marlowe's dad provides solid support and experience when he's not in an alcohol-induced stupor.
I really enjoy Ide's writing. It's sparse, has humorous asides and insights, and doesn't take itself too seriously while describing serious topics. My sole complaint with The Goodbye Coast is with the sheer amount of 'stuff' going on. There are lots of characters, a couple different plots, the action switches sometimes between current and past, and things move quickly. I really enjoyed the characters and think that this Marlowe guy may have a future....
February 3, 2022
A Philip Marlow novel? You caught my attention Joe Ide! Ide puts his own spin on this iconic character, setting his tale in current day, in his new novel - The Goodbye Coast.
Marlowe is an unlicensed private investigator in Las Angeles, often taking cases from a crusty old investigator. He often gets help from his Dad Emmet - currently on leave from the LAPD.
Now, I must admit, I went in with pre-conceived notions as to what this Marlow would be like - his thoughts and actions, who the other players would be and what the crime might entail. And I discarded them quickly. This Marlowe isn't what I expected - but I very much liked Ide's reinvention.
Marlowe has two cases on his plate - a missing wealthy teenager and a mother desperate to find her missing child. Enter the femmes fatale. Again, happily not what I was expecting - these two will give Marlow a run for his money. Bring in Russian and Armenian gangs and the action ramps up.
I loved Marlowe's wry internal thoughts and observations. And his wishful thinking on the romance front. The dialogue is short and snappy, suiting the character and the overall tone of the book. It's often quite humorous as well. The setting of Los Angeles is portrayed in all it's glitz and grime. Marlowe and Emmet have a complicated relationship and Ide explores the father and son relationship with a keen eye.
This reader quite enjoyed this homage to Chandler and other 'classic' crime novels. Here's hoping that it's not too long of a wait for the next Marlow case.
Marlowe is an unlicensed private investigator in Las Angeles, often taking cases from a crusty old investigator. He often gets help from his Dad Emmet - currently on leave from the LAPD.
Now, I must admit, I went in with pre-conceived notions as to what this Marlow would be like - his thoughts and actions, who the other players would be and what the crime might entail. And I discarded them quickly. This Marlowe isn't what I expected - but I very much liked Ide's reinvention.
Marlowe has two cases on his plate - a missing wealthy teenager and a mother desperate to find her missing child. Enter the femmes fatale. Again, happily not what I was expecting - these two will give Marlow a run for his money. Bring in Russian and Armenian gangs and the action ramps up.
I loved Marlowe's wry internal thoughts and observations. And his wishful thinking on the romance front. The dialogue is short and snappy, suiting the character and the overall tone of the book. It's often quite humorous as well. The setting of Los Angeles is portrayed in all it's glitz and grime. Marlowe and Emmet have a complicated relationship and Ide explores the father and son relationship with a keen eye.
This reader quite enjoyed this homage to Chandler and other 'classic' crime novels. Here's hoping that it's not too long of a wait for the next Marlow case.
March 5, 2023
Excellent updating of the Philip Marlowe character to the modern world. Witty, suspenseful and full of twists and turns. Highly recommended.
September 14, 2021
This is AWESOME! Not just a loving homage to Chandler but very much a hilarious noir Joe Ide-style mystery in its own right. Can't wait for more. From Cody the teenage runaway (played, in my head, by a Miley Cyrus look-alike) to Marlowe's dad Emmet (my visual would be Lou Asner with an attitude problem), everyone's got secrets, and unravelling them produces a glorious, darkly funny messy farce with a very stylish protagonist, Marlowe himself.
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