Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121069 in Books
• Published on: 1989-05-25
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Synopsis
Stalking the tawdry neon wilderness of forties and fifties Los Angeles, Raymond Chandler's hard-drinking, wise-cracking Phillip Marlowe is one of the world's most famous fictional detectives. "Playback" finds Marlowe mixing business with pleasure - getting paid to follow a mysterious and lovely red-head named Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble seems to follow. But she's easy on the eye and Marlowe's happy to do as he's told, all in the name of chivalry, of course. But one dead body later and what started out as a lazy afternoon's snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity - and murder...

Customer Reviews

Philip Marloweýs existential wanderings in Esmeralda
Playback isn't an ideal introduction into Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels. In fact the final chapter will only be understood by people who have previously read The Long Goodbye.
Very little actually happens in Playback. There's only one murder and very little fighting. Marlowe spends most of the novel just trying to figure out exactly what he's supposed to be doing. Marlowe eventually cracks a mystery, but to satisfy his own curiosity, not on the instructions of his client.
Marlowe is more reflective than ever and there are some wonderful meditations.
This isn't a detective novel, it's a novel featuring a detective. The mystery is not the key element of this book, rather it is a meditation on the power structures of a wealthy small town.
Chandler fanatics talk about Playback with a hushed reverence. Read it and you gain access to Marlowe's soul. Or is it Raymond Chandler?

A sharp, witty, stylish novel.
Philip Marlowe rousted from his bed, by 'Clyde Umney, the lawyer', finds himself dispatched to meet the San Diego train, to follow a melancholy redhead; armed with a general description and his fees been paid up front, courtesy of a snobby blonde secretary.

It doesn't take Marlowe long to discover that the redheads in trouble, and the ever chivalrous Marlowe gives her a helping hand, as he try's to figure out why he's been hired to follow her, and why she's in a jam. As he digs into the case Marlowe uncovers a labyrinth of blackmailers, a body that moves, bitter rich old men, an arrogant PI, a gigolo, a psychopath, a racketeer, decent policemen and disaffected low life's. Bad girls and one-nightstands, he gets the Snobby blonde with the wining line, 'what are you doing tonight? And don't tell me you've got a date with four sailors again?'

The novel leaves you wondering how Marlowe ever makes a living when he spends most of his time either giving money back or refusing it.

It's a wonderfully distilled story, sharp and to the point. Although not his greatest work Chandler still gives you the usual superb characterisations, dialogue, wit and style, providing a very lucid feeling of America mid-twentieths century.