Product Description

A warm day on Central Avenue, and Philip Marlowe's hunch about the man beside him is as vague as the heat waves that dance above the sidewalk. The way business is looking, even a hunch is enough. Moose Malloy stands six five and one-half and weighs two hundred and sixty-four pounds, without his necktie. After eight years in the pen, he wants little Velma back, and no cops or mobsters are ready to stand in his way. Marlowe's tough enough for the ride, but he can't help thinking – there’s never been a happy ending to the story of beauty and the beast . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7557 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
Young tornado of a tale in which Philip Marlowe, private detective, witnesses the killing of a bartender, in a Negro joint, and then of a client, who seems to be fingerman for a gang of jip artists and dope peddlers. Marlowe takes a tall amount of assault and battery as he defies the police and prowls on his own, with the help of a redhead. He follows the trail which leads from a bar to a seductive blonde to a spurious occulist to a graft-ridden California police set-up. High pressure, smart stuff - argot after the Remingway pattern - tough modern school. 'Ware. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Best-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding dialogue and description
I often wonder if Chandler ever structured the plot before he started. He wrote a lot of short stories for the pulps before he moved on to novels. I read somewhere that this story was two shorter stories into one so he was happy to reuse material that he had previously produced. This is maybe why his novels get weaker as he is trying to make up new material. The High Window his third novel is reputedly the first one he had to make up from scratch.


If you want to know what the plot is look elsewhere as it is hardly matters. The book is in the first person so you only see the world through Marlowe's eyes. He gives you what description he wants to give you and only occasionally lets you know his feelings.


All the dialogue is sharp and witty. You would like to believe that people really did talk like that but it must have been produced after hours of honing at his typewriter.


Philip Marlowe gets involved after meeting Moose Malloy in a bar. Some of the language when talking about blacks is shocking to us now but was a product of the time. The police were not really interested when Moose Malloy killed a black barman.


A second story kicks in and Marlowe is out looking for people as murders take place and he gets kidnapped. You don't have to worry if you have forgotten the plot as at the end Chandler will wrap it all up for you by way of an explanation by Marlowe to one of the other characters. It is handy for the reader as by that time unless you read the book at one sitting you will have forgotten.


I like reading Chandler books slowly as that language is so clever and you don't want to rush over the descriptions and dialogue just with a view to getting on with the plot. the plot doesn't matter.


I am now going to spoil myself and read The Big sleep is first and most well known book as it was so successfully filmed with Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe


Chandler created a whole world that was his own and he is the master of it.


Another great read.

Chandler's best and most literate Marlowe novel
The slick and hard hitting style employed in this book belies its deeper social satire, metaphor and significance as a great character study. The character study is of both Marlowe and the glitzy, dirty world he inhabits. Themes include the effects of success on a personality, honour in places where people don't play by the rules, misplaced love and corruption in the heart of not only a judiciary system, but also the infrastructure of a whole area. It works well as a piece of literature filled with allusion and metaphor. It also works well as a thrilling detective novel - the distinctive and influential prose doesn't miss a beat, nor does the plot, which is lubricated with a pulled gun whenever things start to stick.

I've said all that without really touching on the main draw (in my opinion) of the book - Marlowe. I'll let Chandler say it like it is:

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness."

-- The Simple Art of Murder; the words mean streets were an inspiration for the title of Martin Scorsese's film Mean Streets.

Now buy this book and dangle before I start pumpin' lead!

classical black series
This is my first Marlow novel. I cherish its rememberance. I read it when I was about 15 and came like a blow in the stomach. Then I read all Marlow novels in a row.

Marlow is hired to protect a man while he perfoms some business. The man is killed and Marlow begins to investigate. It contains all the good topics of the black series: a honest, tough detective, beautiful gals, tough policemen, dirty politics, runaway gangsters...

This is a detection novel, but also - like good detective novels like Maigret, Waallander, Hammet - a social satire, a raw criticism of USA society and particularly of the affluent, rich, care-for-nothing upper class. The power of money can deform everybody, and little hope is there for the innocent or honest. Morality is nowhere to be found but in some obscure detective, some bitter police officers who cannot do anything about it.

But what I liked best was the clever dialoges, the witty conversation, the inteligent twists in the plot, which takes a new turn in every chapter. In the end, it was not so complicated. It was only a woman and a lot of money. But brother, it was worth the trouble.

In the end, love will take a rush at saving if only poetically those who are foolish enough to belive in love.

Worth the time.