The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

This 1939 crime noir is Raymond Chandler's first novel. After 6 years of developing his perfect detective in short story form, Chandler branched out to introduce private investigator Philip Marlowe. The Big Sleep is perhaps the most well known of Chandler's works as Humphrey Bogart would play Marlowe opposite Lauren Bacall. 

But don't expect that iconic 1944/46 film (its release was delayed nearly 2 years because of the war) to be anything like the book. At least in terms of pornography. See Marlowe discovers that the youngest daughter of a wealthy oil magnate is being blackmailed into taking dirty photos for a low level pimp. The pimp is claiming that the girl has gambling debts tied to a big shot casino owner by the name of Mars. 

Marlowe is hired to put the kibosh on the debts, which technically can't be legally claimed upon. Older daughter Carmen thinks that the shamus is being hired to find her missing husband, who presumably ran off with Mars' estranged wife. When the pornographer is bumped off, Marlowe starts to make more connections to Mars and the missing husband, all the while being tempted by both sisters, one of which is psychotic as hell. 

You've got the porn. You've got nudity and sex. There's bisexuality and homosexuality. There's even a hint of cross-dressing or some other kink. Dirty cops, murder, Mickey Finns, and a whole bunch of boozing and gambling. Considering what I know about the Hays Code, I am surprised that this film was made during WW2. While some areas were changed to fit the code, there was a whole heck of a lot of implied depravity in the film. 

This is the story that famously, when Howard Hawks was filming the movie adaptation, neither he nor the producers could figure out who killed one of the characters and Chandler replied 'Damned if I know.' So while written by a master of 20th century American literature, this is not a book without its flaws. But he does get better. The Lady in the Lake and The Long Goodbye are both nearly flawless. But this one seems to do too much in just a short amount of time. At 230 pages, I think this might be the shortest Philip Marlowe novel. This is definitely a case of 'less is more' not working so well.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

Keeping in mind that I've only read about half of the Philip Marlowe novels written by Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely is currently my least favorite of the bunch. First published in 1940, this is only Chandler's 2nd Marlowe novel. So it's early Chandler. Unpolished Chandler. 

I'm learning that Raymond Chandler is a fantastic writer. He paints pictures with words that are so vibrant, I feel like I am there. But when it comes to plotting, the writer isn't the most thorough or revealing. You know that conspiracy theory board where the paranoid guy has red strings going all over the place? Well I feel like Chandler uses two bulletin boards placed on opposite sides of the room, because some of the connections he makes with the clues behind the mystery are a bit of a stretch.

There's a trio of Russian cigarettes that contain a secret in them. How Chandler connects the murder of a client all the way to the organized crime racket of a seaside California town still has my scratching my head. If it didn't have anything to do with the plot, I would consider it a red herring. But Chandler does find a way to glue the puzzle pieces together. I just think he forgot to tell us how he did it. 

There's a famous anecdote about where Howard Hawks is trying to adapt The Big Sleep to a screenplay and he can't figure out how one of the characters died to which Raymond Chandler telegraphed back 'Damned of I Know.' The Big Sleep was Chandler's first Marlowe novel. So you can imagine how excited I am to read it in light of this Hollywood legend. 

Some of the Philip Marlowe novels were originally published in the pulps, only without Chandler's iconic hero in the starring role, and being around 50 pages or less, having slightly changed plots. And yes, some of the plots were altered quite a bit. The scene where Marlowe goes to a hotel and shares a pint of whiskey with the manager is a moment taken directly from 'Pickup on Noon Street'.

So what's the plot to Farewell, My Lovely? In a nutshell, Marlowe runs into a massive ex-con who needs help finding his sweetheart: a girl by the name of Velma. After Moose Malloy accidentally kills the man that owns the new establishment at the locale that used to be where Velma worked, the big guy flees. Several cops warn Marlowe away from the case. But you never can tell the detective to stay away from a mystery. That's practically invitation for the shamus to keep on looking for clues.

Marlowe's search for Velma will hopefully lead the cops to arrest Malloy. In the meantime, he takes a rather small assignment, helping a pretty boy playboy conduct a money drop for some stolen jewelry. Smelling a set up, Marlowe goes around to case the scene. But that's a bad idea, because it results in his client's death. With the help of a loaded cigarette case of reefers and a spunky news reporter, the P.I. will stumble in the path of a con man playing celebrity psychic, his odorific henchman and a disgraced doctor who holds the narrator captive with truth serum and dope before finds his way to freedom and the off shore gambling houses of one of the state's leading 'legitimate businessmen!'

Argue as much as you like that a lot of Marlowe's exploits seem to repeat throughout the books he stars in. But the 2 chapters where the dick languishes in a drugged fueled haze is completely new territory. Plus, I do not recall marijuana playing a role in any of the other novels written by Chandler.

Chandler takes Marlowe all over L.A. County it seems. If it was a travel guide, this would be one of the most amazing works of mental pictures about the underbelly of Southern Coastal California. But this is a crime noir. One that is written so well but needs a road map to get from Point A all the way to Point B. I think this would have worked better as 2 short stories. One about Marlowe's encounters with Moose Malloy and a second about the murdered client. I think if Chandler had done that I would be a fan of 2 amazing novellas instead of on the fence about a very confusing mystery novel. Though, some of the confusion could be based on my copy being a UK edition. 

Perhaps some of the late 1930s slang used by the characters in this book were changed for British audiences. It's possible. I just don't know how likely that could be.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler

One of Chandler's novels written towards the end of his career/life. Philip Marlowe has always been a cynical character (to be a private investigator in a mega-corrupt City of Angels, you really have to be as such), but here it seems that Chandler started to become that type of cantankerous old man who yells at kids to stay off his lawn. There are several diatribes at how society has lost its way. Quite a bit about how America became a super power after the second world war, producing terrible products sold inside of top of the line quality packaging. It almost read like a boomer who doesn't know how to stay quiet on social media 

That's not to say that I didn't love this 1953 book. There's several mysteries all intertwined and while I needed a dictionary to decipher many of the outdated references and lingo sprinkled throughout this book, I didn't get lost in the plot. In, fact I actually was able to solve most of the crimes before Marlowe did and I was pretty proud of myself for it.

Marlowe becomes friends with a cuckold veteran of WWII. His wealthy wife openly cheats on him while nobody is able to say a single bad thing about the guy. When the wife turns up brutally murdered, the guy takes the fall and flees to Mexico. Marlowe is arrested for driving the guy to the Mexican border. But the detective is soon released when news arrives that the fugitive kills himself.

Marlowe is willing to let things drop. But friends and acquaintances of the killer keep approaching Marlowe, warning him from looking further into the murder/suicide. Thus the P.I. has no option but to determine if his old pal did it or if he was framed. There's also concern that Marlowe's friend might not have actually pulled the trigger on himself but instead was made to look like it was suicide. 

Meanwhile, a publishing agent of a famous hack romance writer, is looking to hire Marlowe to keep the author, who's got a history of drink and violence, on track to finish his latest work. Marlowe doesn't do babysitting assignments. Normally, he'd turn the job down. Only the scribe has an alluring wife who's caught Marlowe's eye. Plus the guy has gone missing for several days now. So it appears that as much as Phillip wants to wash his hands of this crew, just like with the death of his friend in Mexico, he's got another mystery to solve whether he likes it or not.

I swear I have read this book before. When I was about 12, I read a couple of Philip Marlowe novels. I know that I read Lady in the Lake and I at least tried to complete Raymond Chandler's unfinished work, Poodle Springs, and hated it. There was just so many aspects of this book that were extremely familiar to me. Maybe that's why I solved many of the mysteries in here. 

It could be that I have seen the 1973 Robert Altman version starring Elliot Gould. I was a big fan of Altman's in the 90s and would watch just about anything he made. But after I finished this book, I went to Wikipedia, mostly to see who was cast in the roles. From what I gleaned, I don't think seeing the movie explains my feeling like I had read this book previously. The plot of the film differs too darn much from Chandler's work. 

I will admit that I couldn't stop picturing Gould as Marlowe. There's just too many lines that sound like they would have come from the M*A*S*H* and Friends actor's mouth. I had always pictured someone more plain as Marlowe, like a Montgomery Clift. But I don't think I will be able to anymore. 

There's only 4 Chandler novels and just an even smaller handful of short stories starring Philip Marlowe left. I really want to read them all. But I also don't want to rush through it and be left with nothing new. I've got Farewell, My Lovely already in my possession. But I will probably wait until closer to the beginning of summer to start it. I don't think it matters what order you read the Marlowe books in, although there were a couple of characters that have appeared in some previous stories. I just think that I like the older, post-war Marlowe the best. I don't know why because he gets away with insults and barbs that would end up in viral video fisticuffs these days. 

Oh what a simpler, grittier time...

Worth Consuming!

Rating 10 out of 10 stars.

The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler

This is my first venture into the Philip Marlowe archetype stories written by Raymond Chandler. Well, almost. If you thought George Lucas was bad with his constant retooling of the original Star Wars trilogy, you have never encountered Raymond Chandler. The celebrated crime author was never happy with the end result of his work and he struggled for years with perfection. It is listed as one of the underlying causes of his chronic alcoholism. 

The character began with the name Mallory. Ever the perfectionist, Chandler switched up his ultimate character ideal with another private investigator named Carmady, then Malvern before settling on John Dalmas, whom the author made the focus of a majority of his crime works from 1936-1939 when Philip Marlowe picked up the baton in the form of an ever smoking revolver to fight and solve crime in the Los Angeles area.

Once he was happy with Philip Marlowe, Chandler began to go back to his older pulp shorts and reworked the shamus into them. Stories that I have previously read such as 'Finger Man', 'Red Wind' and 'The Lady in the Lake' were written before Raymond Chandler was satisfied with his protagonist. Yet, the editions I read were the second final drafts. In this collection, I got to read the original published works. It was almost like coming across a DVD with the original 1977 theatrical cut of Star Wars- before it was retitled as Episode IV: A New Hope.

This anthology of Chandler short stories begins with the title essay 'The Simple Art of Murder'. Chandler wrote a lot of essays on crime and mystery writing. This one is considered the Gettysburg Address of brief dissertations on the medium. It gives insight into the thought process behind crafting a mystery story. It also lets me a little off the hook when I find myself feeling like something didn't gel right as Chandler argues that crime stories are full of inaccuracies, red herrings and are in a word, implausible. 

Along with the piece that was first published in the Atlantic Monthly, there are 8 short stories. My favorite was 'I'll Be Seeing You'. It was the shortest story in the book and is considered the most perfectly set mystery story of all time. It certainly was memorable and I didn't want it to end. 'The King in Yellow', 'Pickup on Noon Street' and 'Spanish Blood' were really good as well. That last story sees the main character spending some time in the same mountain town where The Lady in the Lake took place and I enjoyed the sense of a shared universe because of the setting.

I was excited to see 'Guns at Cyrano's' in this volume. That story was originally published in Trouble is My Business. But the edition I read omitted it. It was story that was worth the wait. 

I was on the fence about 'Nevada Gas'. I like that the protagonist was something other than a PI. Here, he's a mid-level hood who is simultaneously fighting off a romantic rival as well as gangsters trying to frame him for the aerosol murder of a businessman. But this story also has some gaps like in one scene when the main character walks in on his girl and the rival, who disappears but is never mentioned as ever having exited the scene.

The one story I could have done without was 'Smart-Aleck Kill'. It seems like an open and shut case of suicide. But the murder weapon is a hand gun that's been filed, which doesn't seem to fit the M.O. of a suicide. So the detective on the case goes to the widow of the gun's original owner and that's when things are supposed to get really good. But I was bored with this story. It just didn't resonate with me. It took me several days to finish and I couldn't wait for it to be over.

Though I wasn't a fan of every story, I love the crime noir world of Raymond Chandler. Even with some tales having flaws in them! I'm totally hooked right now and I want to read more. But as there's so many volumes of collected works that often have some of the same works. I think I am gonna need a list so I can keep straight what I have read and what's still out there to uncover.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler

Believe it or not, I first read this book about 35 years ago. I was somewhere between 11 or 12 when I read it. Nobody ever said that my parents had very good parental discretion. The Lady in the Lake has got sex, violence, dirty cops and several gristly murders. 

I remember being enamored by the title that was a reference to the Arthurian legend. I'm here to tell you, this Raymond Chandler classic has absolutely nothing to do with King Arthur and Merlin. It would have been neat had the main setting, a secluded cabin in the Californian San Gabriel Mountains, had the name of Camelot. But nobody ever said that a Philip Marlowe mystery had a lot of symbolism. 

There was one point where Marlowe provided false information. That lie really confused me. The private investigator states that a murder suspect wore a certain piece of clothing when in fact, it was Philip who wore the accessory. I spent a good half hour going back through the book, thinking that I had missed something. Instead, I should of followed my own personal rule when I read a Raymond Chandler classic: just follow along for the ride.

Being a re-read, despite it being decades since I first read this book, I still had some memories of my first interaction with it. But my memory was foggy enough to still be surprised from time to time. Plus I was just really shocked by the content of this 1943 work, both for the level of loose morals for a time period otherwise considered puritanical compared to today. Plus I still can't believe my mom let me read this book when I was barely in middle school!!!

Marlowe is hired to find a missing wife. Her husband is a high level executive who's more afraid of the scandal behind his wife's history of infidelity than he is concerned about her safety. The last time she was seen was about a month earlier when she went to summer at her mountain cottage. Added to the mix was a bizarre telegram win which the woman claims she's gone to Mexico for a quickie divorce and even quicker remarriage. Only the guy she claimed was going to marry her never took the plunge and hasn't seen her in weeks.

When the shamus visits the cabin, he learns that the caretaker's wife disappeared at about the same time as the missing socialite. When Marlowe discovers a body partially submerged in the water, it's identified that the victim is the caretaker. But could the murderer have been his client's missing bride? It's up to the detective to solve two mysteries that while seemingly unaffiliated; the clues keep entangling like a fast growing vine around each other.

One thing that readers need to understand about this book is that it was written during the height of World War II. There's a lot of situations that seem very unusual to modern day readers as those moments should. There was a very great fear of sabotage especially along the West Coast. Plus with priority going towards the war effort, shortages and rationing was a very real first world problem for Americans in the 1940s. Once you understand the impact the war made on everyday life in the United States, despite our country not becoming an active war zone, it will help you better enjoy this work.

A great read. Just remember to let Raymond Chandler guide you. Things might seem out of sorts at time. But it all circles back in the end.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler

When I read Agatha Christie, I feel like I'm challenged to solve the mystery before her main characters do. When I read Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, I feel like I'm sitting in on a lecture about criminology; learning new and unusual facts. But when I read Raymond Chandler, I'm merely along for the ride. 

Chandler's Philip Marlowe stories are fast paced, wordy whodunits filled with slimy thugs, morally questionable cops and dangerous dames. Private Detective Marlowe doesn't always seek the justice. He's like a 1930s Robin Hood who tries to solve the crime while making sure that the player treated the least fairly is given a fighting chance to better themselves. Marlowe is the lone narrator of his adventures. I just wish I knew what the hell he was talking about sometimes.

Written in a different time where California was still more Wild West than the home of Tinsel Town, nobody can or should be trusted in a Raymond Chandler work. It could be argued that you shouldn't even trust Philip as he'll turn against a paying client if he determines that they're in the wrong; even if every rule in the law book is squarely on their side. But as Marlowe runs the reader through each story, both the private eye and the characters he encounters use verbiage that is so antiquated that the last time they were used in public was during the filming of a Philip Marlowe mystery!

Dictionaries and Google are definitely needed to understand what's being said. 

There are 4 short stories in this collection. Now before some of you Raymond Chandler experts out there berate me on what I just said. Yes, I know, Trouble is my Business contained 5 novellas when the collected edition was first published by Penguin in 1950. I have no idea why 'Guns at Cyrano's' is no longer included in this 1992 edition from Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. Here, you only get the title story along with 'Goldfish', 'Finger Man' and 'Red Wind'. 

'Trouble is my Business' sees Philip being hired out to by a wealthy widower to hopefully persuade a gold digger to unleash her grasp from the millionaire's adopted son. Marlowe then gets a lesson in ichthyology when he goes to the Great White North in search of some stolen pearls. Jewelry is once again the subject, this time as an object of blackmail, when Marlowe witnesses the murder of a man in a speakeasy in 'Red Wind'. Then in a story that has to have influenced Roman Polanski's Chinatown, Philip is given the choice to take the fall as the 'Finger Man' or let an innocent woman take the rap for the murder of a two-bit hustler in a mystery that revolves around a crooked politician who controls all of the gambling dens in Los Angeles.

All 4 stories were fun reads. 'Goldfish' was perhaps my favorite because of the fish out of water quality to it with Marlowe being in the Vancouver area instead of sunny California. I also really liked 'Red Wind'. While each story had a sultry femme fatale as a character, 'Red Wind' was the only story where I felt that Marlowe was going to get burned by getting too close to the flames of passion. Also, it's the only tale where Marlowe never enters his detective agency office. It's dive bar, apartment, out in the field; solving a case he never even agreed to a fee to in a single night.

Don't neglect to read the opening article written by Raymond Chandler himself. It's a well known essay in which the author admits his works are far from literature. But that doesn't in any way detract from the artistic quality of his writings. Ironically, among fans of mystery noir and the pursuit of the great American novel, the case files of Philip Marlowe, P.I. are among the pinnacles of mid-20th century lit. 

A must read for murder mystery enthusiasts. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Playback (2025 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In the mid-1940s, Raymond Chandler was a hot property in Hollywood. Film adaptations of several of his mystery novels starring hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe had been massive hits, including 1946's The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Chandler was under contract with Warner Brothers to produce a number of films based on his works. He thought director Howard Hawks had done a masterful job and was happy with Bogie's portrayal of Marlowe. However, the author had become dissatisfied with the final cut of the film as script rewrites had seriously altered his version of the plot.

Chandler was determined that the next film based on one of his works would be true to his vision. The best way to achieve this was to write the next screenplay himself. And it wouldn't be with Warner; contract or no contact. Working out a trade, Chandler's agent was able negotiate the next film to be produced at Universal Studios. Only this film would based on a totally new story; one which would not feature Philip Marlowe. It wouldn't even be set in California!

Playback begins in rural North Carolina. A young woman is accused of murdering her husband, a war hero and son of the town's most influential citizen.  Fleeing from her past and changing her name to Betty Mayfield, the woman runs as far as she can, taking a train to Vancouver. There, she meets a young man named Larry Mitchell who at first seems to take her under his wing, to the point of helping her pass Canadian customs and obtaining a room in a swank hotel. Soon Larry's intentions become clear and during a cocktail party thrown by the hotel's most prominent guest in the penthouse suite, makes a drunken pass at Betty.

In the aftermath of the incident, Betty threatens Larry, promising serious repercussions should the sot assault her again. Turns out Betty won't have to worry about Larry Mitchell ever again as the man winds up dead on her balcony patio. As inspectors attempt to solve the mystery,  Betty's troubled past in North Carolina is revealed. She believes that she's being framed, possibly by her former father-in-law, who swore revenge for his son's death. As the investigation furthers, Inspector Killaine has a gut feeling that the girl is innocent. However the evidence is mounting up against Betty. Canadian authorities are ready to make an arrest. As time runs out, Betty and a date with the electric chair and almost certainty unless Killaine can find a break in case fast.

About halfway through writing the script, Raymond Chandler got bored. Some claim writer's block. Others suspect that the author realized he needed Philip Marlowe and the sunny skies of California to complete his story and that he stubbornly refused to rest on his laurels. Towards the end of his life, Chandler had stated in interviews that he felt that his most beloved character had come to their natural conclusion and the author had bemoaned that he never achieved his dream of writing a serious work that was important to literature. Regardless of what prolonged the completion of Playback, Chandler's delays doomed the film.

Chandler finally submitted the screenplay in the winter of 1948, after missing at least 2 deadlines. Universal called for several charges that the author felt were a step backwards for him. But it was too late. With film noir beginning to lose its luster and the British parliament imposing a major tax on American film productions, Universal cancelled many of its early development projects including Playback.

Never one to let a good idea die, Chandler retooled Playback into a novel. He willingly let Marlowe take the leading man role. Chandler's hometown of La Jolla, California was used as the inspiration for the fictional town of Esmeralda, USA. The roles of a couple of major characters were lessened and the plot centered more on the P.I. than the female lead. But otherwise, the main plot of the story remained the same. Released in 1958, first to British audiences, Playback was Chandler's final complete novel as the novelist died a year later. 

Sometime prior to 2004, archivists at Universal discovered the lost screenplay. Immediate efforts were made by the production company and Raymond Chandler's estate to get the original vision of Playback to the adoring public. In 2004, Editions Denoël commissioned French comic creator Ted Benoit to adapt the recovered screenplay into a graphic novel. It's a story full of the usual Raymond Chandler formula deadly dames, cretinous secondary characters, red herrings and unexpected plot twists. Plus, it's got a Hollywood movie code twist ending that rivals any E.C. Comics classic. François Ayroles illustrated the black and white heavy brush artwork. Arcade Publishing released a hardcover English version of the graphic novel in 2006.  

To this day, Playback remains the only Raymond Chandler work to have never been been adaptation into a live action film.

Completing this review completes Task #30 (A Mystery) of the 2025 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.