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.

The Case of the Dangerous Dowager by Erle Stanley Gardner

I have a fairly extensive knowledge of the character Perry Mason because of my mom. She owned a copy of every one of the books written by Erle Stanley Gardner and when growing up, there was a good chance that Perry Mason, played by Raymond Burr was on in either rerun or as a 2-hour movie of the week.

For about the past year now, I have been enjoying mystery novels. Mostly the crime noir tales of private detective Philip Marlowe written by Raymond Chandler. I've always loved a mystery and with me about to have run the gambit of works by Chandler, I felt that it might be time to seek out another classic mystery writer. 

During our family's annual scavenger hunt during the 301 Endless Yard Sale, I decided to put a Perry Mason novel on the list. Hopefully, somebody would find one and since you didn't really have to start with book #1, I was open to whatever might be available in just about any condition except severely water damaged and mildewed.

I got lucky at my first stop, a thrift store that supports a pet rescue called Street Dogs and Stray Cats. Minus the dust jacket, I found this 1937 first edition of The Case of the Dangerous Dowager. It's the 10th book in the series and it's about as far away from episode of the golden age of television series as I think you could get. 

Here's a quick rundown of the case. There is this rich grandma who knows that her granddaughter is over $7000 in debt to a pair of 'legitimate businessmen', who own a casino ship, legally 12 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. The husband of the granddaughter is about to file for divorce and if he could get his hands on the IOU slips, it would strengthen his case to become sole guardian of their infant child and executor of a rather large trust fund. 

The grandmother hires Perry Mason to buy up the IOUs before the husband can. It's not really the sort of thing Mason does. But the grandmother feels that the lawyer is a very trustworthy soul and she authorizes him to include a bonus to prevent the casino owners from blackmailing the granddaughter and keep the inheritance in the family. 

Mason takes a speedboat to the casino. With money in hand, Mason is prepared to buy the IOUs and then wash his hands of the entire affair. However, when he goes to visit the co-owner who oversees the financial side of things, he finds the man shot through the temple. Only, there's no gun! The IOUs are right there at the deceased man's desk. The granddaughter was spotted on the boat. As was the husband. Grandma too! 

So Perry Mason finds himself implicated for the murder. Instead of going to trial, the lawyer goes on the run. As the story breaks in the newspapers and radio, Perry runs through the suspect list in hopes of clearing his name and finding out just who the murderer is. 

With exception of a scene that takes place in a conference room with the Los Angeles County District attorney and all of the suspects rounded up about to testify before the grand jury, there is no actual court proceedings! Perry manages to wrestle control of the pre-jury meeting from the D.A., and through extensive questioning, gets to the bottom of things. But in this book, he's more of a P.I. than a lawyer. 

I know that on the 2020 HBO reboot series, Perry Mason starts out as a private detective, working his way up to becoming a defense attorney. So having him trying to solve the crime by beating the pavement by working over leads might be in line with the character. But I don't remember an episode of 1957-1966's Perry Mason not ever taking place in a court of law. Where's Hamilton Burger, the most unlikely assistant D.A. in history? Where's the judge threatening contempt of court? This is so unlike what I grew up with.

There's a rule in my family that we never judge a TV series by the first episode. We always give shows at least 2 more episodes before we decide whether or not to cut bait. I luckily was able to get a second book at the same time as this one. I'm just wondering if all of the books are like this one or is The Case of the Dangerous Dowager the exception to the rule?

I'll find out shortly.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 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.

Dick Tracy Book 2: Dick Tracy Vs. The Underworld

The debate will always be 'Who has the best Rogue's Gallery: Batman or the Flash?' Once you figure that out, #3 is undoubtedly that of always honest cop, Dick Tracy! The blood thirsty Flattop, with his horizontal cranium. The Brow, with his multiple folded forehead that rivals that of Duke great, Shane Battier. Names like Mumbles, Prune Face, Itchy and Breathless Mahoney either indicate a physical attribute or character trait that gives the reader a clue as to the type of villain Tracy and his men will be encountering. 

I was 12 when Dick Tracy hit theaters and I admit that I caught the fever. When it was announced that in the 1990 live action film all of Dick Tracy's main foes were assembled in what was built as an all-out gang war with Tracy and his squad in the middle to protect and serve the post-prohibition citizens of the metropolis, known simply as 'The City', I was thrilled! I grew up spending a lot of time on the farm owned by my grandmama and her family. The adventures of Dick Tracy were a weekend surprise as the major newspapers of Raleigh, NC didn't carry the strip. I feel in love with the unique criminals and their clever names. B.O. Plenty! You knew that guy stunk! Although they had been killed decades earlier, I grew up reading the classic Dick Tracy stories that were collected in comic book format. There probably was a paperback collection floating around the house. So imagine my disappointment when 90% of the promised characters get knocked off in the first 15 minutes of the Warren Beatty led movie!

If you are like me and you felt that a majority of the best Tracy villains were killed off way too early, then you will love the first 2 issues of the Dick Tracy comic miniseries produced by Disney during its all too brief experiment as a comic book publisher. Issues 1&2 act as a prequel to the movie. I've learned over the years that the live action film had underwent dozens of rewrites as the franchise rights changed hands several times in the 70s and 80s. So I wonder if perhaps there's was a lot of stuff that was not good enough for the silver screen but still warranted public notice. Hence the prequel treatment.

In book 2, Prohibition finally gets repealed. The illegal trade of alcohol is no longer a lucrative venture. As a result, Prune Face makes a play for the numbers racket run in The City solely by Lips Manlis. When some of Prune Face's gang wipe out a deli that is secretly a front for illegal sports betting of the Manlis gang, Lips' right hand man, Al 'Big Boy' Caprice is incensed! He wants revenge. But Lips is concerned about making waves what with Dick Tracy given carte blanch by the Chief of Police, on cleaning up the criminal element of The City! 

Seeing Manlis refusing retribution as a sign of weakness, Big Boy begins a play to take over. Meanwhile, a group of unknown thugs have knocked over an armored truck. Tracy and his men manage to apprehend all but 1 of the robbers, who flees to the sewers for help from a mysterious figure known only as The Mole! As Tracy investigates a robbery, the FBI send an agent to search for a criminal who might have taken up residence in The City. His investigation and how it ties into the armor car heist will amaze even the most staunchest of crime noir/mystery lovers with a plot that rivals Mickey Spillane, Agatha Christie and James Bond's papa, Ian Fleming.

Showing the origins of the two-way wrist watch radio, along with introducing about another dozen novelty villains of the Dick Tracy Rogues Gallery, book 3 is the official adaptation of the 1990 live action film.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 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 Thin Man by Dashiell Hamett

Who would have thought that Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man was a Christmas novel? Okay, maybe it's more of a Christmas story like Die Hard is, in that the first half of the book takes place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and the remainder occurs up to just about New Year's Eve. The holidays are responsible for getting San Francisco socialites Nick and Nora Charles to spend Christmas in Nick's hometown of Manhattan. It's also what gets the former private investigator involved in the life of the Wynant family as daughter Dorothy is desperate to find her estranged family, Clyde.

On Boxing Day, it's revealed that dear old dad's mistress was murdered. The prime suspects are the missing Clyde or his ex-wife Mimi, who was present when the other woman passed on to her eternal reward. Nick just wants a quiet holiday in the Big Apple. Nora is enthralled by her husband's previous career and the chance at playing amateur sleuth. The police need all the help they can get. So it seems no matter how much he tries to distance himself from the case, it appears that Nick Charles, P.I. is back in business.

The Thin Man is very much a Dashiell Hammett work and it's also very different. I've always thought that Hammett was more wordy than Raymond Chandler. The Maltese Falcon wasn't so bad with the unnecessary dialogue. But Hammett's in rarer form here. Three whole pages were devoted to an account about a cannibal in the Old West. A whole paragraph is about a book sent to Nick as a Christmas card for testing your urine at home. Neither item has anything to do with the murder of Clyde Wynant's mistress and neither were some sort of foreshadowing of plot developments to come. And no matter how much I have tried, I cannot find a definitive answer as to why Hammett put these accounts in this book. Plus, I probably would have finished this book several days earlier than I did going back and trying to figure out who this person was or is pretending to be; not to mention those other rabbit holes... And if they're red herrings- I HATE red herrings.

I did find myself liking this book a lot more than The Maltese Falcon. It was rapid fire with Nick and Nora's one-shots at each other. I liked how the plot played out like an Agatha Christie novel with so many other secrets and deceptions coming to life. Plus, I like the fact that I solved who the murderer was! (I always like when I do that.) I  also like to think it's a sign of a good story when you want to read more adventures starring the main characters. To my regret, Hammett never wrote another Thin Man story as a novel. But he did write several of the screenplays that followed up the live action film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. I'm excited to say that I managed to get one of them recorded on my DVR to watch over my holiday break!

You might think that this novel being from 1934 and a condensed version first appearing a year earlier in Redbook, that The Thin Man is a fairly innocuous little story. With the impropriety, boozing, murder, assaults on women, dirty cops and at least 1 erection, I can't believe this made it into a women's fashion magazine. Something like GQ or Playboy, sure I could see The Thin Man making an appearance in the pages of those. Maybe the 1930s was a different time for women's mags. 

This was an interesting read that makes me want more. Yeah, it had some flaws. But it wasn't enough to keep me from visiting the works of Dashiell Hammett some time in the near future.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

I don't know if there's been a debate over which is the better detective writer. But between Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, my money is on Chandler. I tried to get into crime noir as a kid and while I liked it, I wasn't mature enough for it. I tried to get into Hammett's work but I found him too wordy. I probably would have stayed by that assessment without needing to review my position. But I found a copy of The Maltese Falcon for a really good price and decided to give Hammett another try.

The story is where the world was introduced to Sam Spade. He'd appeared in a short story a year prior. But it didn't really move the needle. It was until the popularity of this story broken into 5 parts in the pages of Black Mask magazine in 1929, that the world really got a good look at the celebrated private investigator who only ever appeared in 5 works by Hammett and one of those was left unpublished! 

When The Maltese Falcon were collected into a single novel in 1930, it became a smash hit. It also laid the foundation for hard boiled crime fiction. Humphrey Bogart made the character of Spade a household name in 1941's black and white film adaptation, directed by John Huston; which is considered one of the greatest films ever made. You might be wondering why it took over a decade for Bogie to play Sam Spade.  Actually, a film version was made in 1931. But it's content was so salacious, with nudity, sex and homosexual overtones, that film standards adopted shortly after it's release, prevented it from ever being re-released to the viewing public. Hence, a toned down remake was necessitated to be made for the viewing public of a pre-WW2 America.

In the story, Sam Spade is accused of murdering his detective agency partner, with whom he is having an affair with the man's wife. To clear his name, Spade must figure out how the client his partner was hired to protect got tangled up with a trio of criminals who all accuse the woman of stealing something valuable from them: a one of a kind golden statue covered in black resin called the Maltese Falcon. Lost from the annals of history, the Falcon was supposed to be a tribute to the King of Spain, during the time of the Crusades. If the bird can be recovered, it would be a priceless relic that could net Sam Spade and his client a hefty pay day.

As the murder count grows, so does distrust among the group. Sam and his client get rather intimate with each other. And the police threaten to send Spade away on a murder charge for a very long time. What results is a trio of chapters that crosses and double-crosseds everyone on the suspect list a good 3 or 4 times a piece and becomes some 40 or so pages of the most well written crime drama even written. I just wish the other 175-odd so pages were just as good. 

Okay, that last statement might not be quite so fair. Before the last 3 chapters, there is a span of 3-4 chapters that I also thought were very good. But I just couldn't get into this book until I reached chapter 11. At that point, something just clicked. It felt like the writer had finally gotten into the zone, or whatever similar mode of excellence that writers get into when they get cooking. But that first half of the book was rather difficult for me to get engaged with. I was averaging 2 chapters a night at first. That was how much I could take. With the adventures of Philip Marlowe, I was finishing entire 80 page short stories in just an hour worth of read time. 

I will say that I no longer consider Dashiell Hammett to be 'wordy'. But I feel like he was too focused on the mundane. For instance, he can spend an entire 200 word paragraph, exploring the contents of a dead man's pocket. Not plural. For each searched pocket, Hammer devotes another paragraph to it and I am just not sure it was all that necessary. But Hammett's dialogue is brilliant. So good, that I am willing to give Nick and Nora Charles with their witty repartee and frequent downing of martinis a try with Hammett's The Thin Man. 

It wasn't Raymond Chandler. But it wasn't terrible as I had thought it was 30 years ago either. My tastes grew up and so did my appreciation. 

Rating: 6 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.

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.

The Spirit Archives, Vol. 10

January through June, 1945. The second World War is drawing to a close. Will Eisner is still tinkering away as a warrant officer in Washington, using the medium of comics to teach preventative maintenance. In New York, Eisner's creation, the vigilante detective posing as a criminal warlord, the Spirit, is still being published by talents such as Jack Cole. And yet, Eisner's creation just isn't the same without him.

Under Will Eisner, the characters had emotion. The layouts were brilliant experiments in lettering and design. The plots were simultaneously action-packed and funny. The art evoked empathy, passion and horror. Above all, an air of whimsy filled the corner of every page until it oozed off the paper. 

Without Will Eisner, the Spirit has become a soulless crime book. Instead of being imitated by the rest of the industry, the series has become just another in an endless sea of crime comics that seek to push countless envelopes. 

There are essentially 2 sections of this book. About the first 9 or 10 stories are trash. The artwork is flat but acceptable. The plots are complicated to the point of being unintelligible. The dialogue is like someone took a bunch of Sam Spade and James Cagney scripts and threw them in a blender: cliche without substance.

Then some miraculous changes around that 11th or 12th story. The art begins to pop. The colors are brighter. The story lines are now creative and the dialogue is much more polished. It lacks the charm Will Eisner brought to the characters. None of the writers that contributed to the Spirit at this time seem to be able to get Commissioner Dolan's relationship with the hero right. But it's better than the drivel that filled the first 80 pages of this book. 

I want to own the whole 26-volume Spirit archive. (There's actually 27 books in the set. But I think I own all the material that fills that final book and might not need to possess it.) Anyways, I buy (and read) these out of order. I purchase that which is affordable, not chronological order, based on many of these being out of print. Knowing now that Eisner is absent from the books containing the war years, If I am faced with two volumes of about the same price range that is favorable to my wallet and one is set during World War II and the other is not, I'll take the latter... for now.

A fair read. I wish I knew who wrote those later stories in this volume so I could give proper kudos. The difference between the halves of this volume really are as different as night and day.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Torsobear, Vol. 3: Back on the Blocks

I waited a year to read Volume 2 of Torsobear because the story I had begun was such a gut punch of a story. Innocent and sweet looking toys doing very nasty things. It was definitely something that I needed to recover from in order to continue.

While Volume 2 was nowhere near as good as the opening salvo, it continued to be a story that made the reader feel uneasy. Only this time I wasn't going to wait another year to finish the storyline.

Ruxby is back on the force. Only now he's doing crowd control with SWAT as Toyburg has descended into chaos. In the fallout of the Torsobear/Copycat killings, Mayor Huntington has turned the city into a police state, arresting innocent people while the real Copycat Killer pulls the strings literally from behind the curtains. 

There's also unrest in the lands across the Lemonade Sea. Only now this struggle is over class warfare as wealthy toys get richer while the poorer, less advanced playthings get poorer. 

I really didn't like this final volume. Sure, the Copycat Killer storyline gets really confusing and meta. Yet if the various writers and artists behind this project would have just stuck with that plot, things would have been okay. Instead, a lot of space in this book was wasted on what felt like a play date version of Les Mis. If the creators had wanted to do a follow-up volume of the class warfare struggles that occurred at the same time as the events in Toyburg, I would have been good with that. See, Volume 3 also finally reveals what happened in the Saturday Morning War which essentially led to the formation of this vast play-land. Spending time on the secondary plotline took time away from the origin story that was needed because if you look in the background, the Copycat Killer was there involved in the war. His motivations are overlooked because the creative team decided to throw 'a batteries not included' version of The Communist Manifesto into the mix.

Torsobear was a large project that came about thanks to crowdfunding and a lot of word of mouth. It's been about 5 years since this third and final volume was published. Those behind this project are probably done with Toyburg. I, the reader am not. There was so many questions left unanswered. While I in no way want to undo the happy ending, I want more answers. What was Copycat Killer doing in the Saturday Morning War? How did the Mayor come to power? What role did Hazbrow play in the war? And who killed Strax Power?

Maybe a companion piece could be forthcoming. I could see a story where as the citizens of Toyburg re-build, they uncover clues that reveal the answers to my questions and more in flashback. It could work. 

Thankfully, if a Volume 4 ever comes to fruition, it will probably be a couple of years before it comes out. GOOD! Parts of this story freaked me the Hell out. When Copycat paints a demonic set of teeth over the crescent moon, it reminded me of the frightening moon that hangs over Christmasland in Joe Hill's NOS4A2 and the graphic novel companion piece, Wraith. 

The artwork was superior once again. So many freaking awesome Easter eggs! Some great parts that were crowded out by a tangent that was unnecessary. I'm just so disappointed in how an idea with great promise fizzled at the end.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.

Torsobear Vol. 2: All Stitched Up

Though Volume 1 of Torsobear is just as gritty, shocking and violent, that magic was just absent from this follow-up.

The town of Toyburg is still reeling from the Torsobear murders. Detective Ruxby Bear has just nabbed a copycat killer. Only the facts and the evidence just doesn't add up. Unfortunately, he'll not be able to continue he's investigation, as Dectective Ruxby has been arrested for a crime he did not commit.

Now incarcerated in the roughest prison in the land, Ruxby is behind bars with many of the felons and cons that he put there. Constantly having to watch his back, Ruxby tries to solve both his framing and the copycat killings from his jail cell. But when the copycat killer sneaks into his cell, Ruxby now has to face the fact that the mastermind behind all of this is in the penitentiary with him.

Meanwhile on the outside, Ruxby's old partner, Officer Hazbrow, is now the chief of police. He too wants to help his old friend exonerate himself. However, the mayor of Toyburg has forbidden the TBPD continue with the investigation, declaring the Torsobear murders and copycat killings closed. But when the son of an old police mentor of Hazbrow comes asking for help finding his old man, Hazbrow begins an undercover sting that could send not just Toyburg but the entire region of play-lands into civil war.

I love the varying artwork. It's great seeing bad boy versions of your favorite toys. Every page is a feast for the eyes. If you love Easter eggs, be sure to bring your basket with you when reading this book.

Volume 2 is also told in anthology form. The backstories of several of the inmates and prison guards is more interesting than Ruxby's time in jail. To be honest, the hero doesn't belong in prison. He needs to be on the mean streets of Toyburg solving crimes. Hazbrow's story is interesting but that's because the law man is in his element. This volume sets up the Volume 3 finale. Unlike with the first volume, I won't be waiting a year and a half for that book. I just hope the ending returns to that level of wonder that Volume 2 was missing.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

The Spirit #13

Okay. So this is a holiday book. It's only that the holiday covered in this book doesn't match the one on the cover. There are 3 stories in this issue with only the first issue being set during a holiday. And that holiday in question? Is it Christmas? Nope. It doesn't even take place in December. It's Halloween!

On that Halloween night, a gang of goons have just robbed a jewelry store dressed as The Spirit. Things are going good until they reach the tiger lion exhibit at the city zoo and the jewels have somehow wound up right next to a giant Bengal beauty.

Tale #2 has the Spirit helping out an elderly woman who is being targeted by literal grave robbers on the hunt for her uncle's missing inheritance. 

This issue wraps up with a story told entirely in symbols. There's a literary term for this; but I can't remember what that was. And I refuse to quantify it as emojis.

All 3 stories were good. I don't think I've ever read a bad story about The Spirit. There have been some that I had to read a couple times over as capers involving cons and double-crosses. That last story using symbols required a re-read but mostly because there are so many subtle elements that get lost when there are no words to be seen. 

Still, as much as I liked this issue, I feel gypped. That cover is a beauty done in conjunction with J. Bone (Archie Meets Batman '66) and the late Darwyn Cooke (The Twilight Children). And it's Christmasy, through and through. I would have been okay if only 1 of the 3 stories were Christmas themed or if the cover was Halloween themed. But I am unhappy with looking forward all year to this Christmas comic and discovering I should have read this in October. So I am gonna grade hard!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars. 

Torsobear, Vol. 1: Yarns From Toyburg

Imagine a gritty crime noir, similar to Chinatown. Only it stars a variety of stuffed animals and toys. 

Someone is dismembering the teddy bears of Toyburg. A team of a rookie cop and a harden veteran are on the case. Together, the duo will come across perverts, dope fiends and a dame to die for. But the players are all stars from your favorite toy store. And that touch of innocence makes the events that take place just a bit more uneasy.

I got this book as part of a grab bag from Source Point Press. Holy cow- is this an interesting, but odd book. There's basically 2 parts to this volume. The first part is the hunt for the teddy bear killer. The second is a mish-mash of short stories, sketches and other bits and pieces that you might find in an artist's sketchbook. 

So what I am thinking about this section is that it's the origins of Torsobear. Unfortunately, this is a pretty incoherent collection of work. I'm not sure what is canon and what is just the riffs of an artist practicing on some rough drafts. Regardless, I'm intrigued by this bizarro world and I want to know how the story plays out.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Vinegar Teeth #4

• Just who is behind all of the residents of the city becoming zombified?
• Why does Detective Buckle act all weird at the beginning of each issue?
• What kind of blues music goes best with depression?

All of your questions are answered in the final issue of this Dark Horse miniseries. Plus Vinegar Teeth's origin is finally revealed!

A very fulfilling but bitter sweet ending to this Troy Nixey/Damon Gentry!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Animal Noir

Life in the African Serengeti is currently civil between predator and prey. But when giraffe detective Manny Diamond is hired to recover a stolen video, the PI will learn just how close the land is to falling back into chaos. The case will take Diamond to the seedy snuff theatres; a taboo dungeon where carnivores act out their savage natures to films of antelope mutilation. Then there's his distraught wife who turns to a doomsday cult for solace after the loss of her child. And just what is the mystery behind the illegal ELF matches just beyond the mountains to the north?

Animal Noir is a gruff and gritty take on classic film noir and the comic book genre of funny animals. These great beasts of the plain, drawn by Izar Lunacek, might look adorable. But inside each character lies a fierce killer waiting for the chance to pounce.

This collection of the four issue miniseries by Njec Juren are what I imagine the works of Dashiell Hammett would be like if the famed mystery writer was an orangutan. It also could be compared to how the Disney film Zootopia would have turned out if directed by Roman Polanski. The world of Animal Noir is dark and dangerous. What I don't think this IDW miniseries is is finished.

Animal Noir is only four issues long- just over 100 pages collected. There's just so much going on in this story that I really didn't feel satisfied when the book ended. I was both exhilarated and disappointed by the ending. I was even more put off to learn that there wasn't a second volume in the works. Animal Noir is just like the 1970s noir classic Chinatown as there's an ending. But it's far from happy or satisfying.

Considering how awful Chinatown’s sequel The Two Jakes was, I might have to be content with what I read. To demand more adventures of detective Diamond might ruin this amazing story. I just feel like there's more to this. To paraphrase the final scene of Chinatown: Maybe its best to forget about it. After all, it's the Serengeti...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Review originally published October 17, 2017 on outrightgeekery.com.

Batman in Noir Alley #1

Batman in Noir Alley #1
Writers: Stuart Moore, Ed Brubaker
Artists: Valentine De Landro, Sean Phillips
Published by DC Comics and Turner Classic Movies

Of all the free Batman comics scheduled for release over the past several days, Noir Alley was the only one that was comprised of new material. This DC Comics promo comic was released in collaboration with Turner Classic Movie's Noir Alley, a weekly showcase of film noir.

There's two stories in this freebie.

The first story, Batman in Noir Alley, has Bruce Wayne in Hollywood, attending a special showing of a film based on a priceless relic called the Moroccan Raptor. The statue just happens to be on loan from the Gotham City Museum for the event as well. When the projectionist is murderer and the Moroccan Raptor disappears, Batman is on the scene. However, to bring the murderer to justice in a strange town, Batman will need some assistance. Help comes when the Dark Knight's investigation pairs him with the 'Czar of Noir' Eddie Muller, who is also on the case. But can this new player be trusted or will he succumb to the femme fatale behind the crimes?

I really liked this story by writer Stuart Moore (Wolverine Noir.) Though set in the modern era, it's got a very LA 1930s noir feel to it. A lot of this is thanks in very large part to artist Valentine De Landro (Bitch Planet). I think had Darwyn Cooke not passed away last year, he would have been the artist behind this story. But De Landro's style is so similar to the late artist that I think we've discovered the next Darwyn Cooke!

The one thing about this story that was odd to me was the use of Eddie Muller. Muller is the host of Noir Alley, the TCM series in which this book is a tie-in. Moore doesn't go right out and have Muller do a commercial for the show. Having Muller play a role in this story was a little hokey to me. It also detracts from the quality of the tale, but not that much thankfully.

A Detective on the Run

Then in the back-up feature, the action is set in 1949. The story is called Gotham Noir, a 2001 Elseworlds tale by Gotham Central's Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Here Jim Gordon is a disgraced police detective who must talk his way out of being apprehended by the Batman. Gordon's story will involve Selina Kyle, dirty two-bit thugs, and a tainted angel whose returned to Gotham in hopes of redeeming her soiled reputation.

My opinion towards this book is mixed. The story itself fits in the genre feel established in the first story. But you only get the first 12-pages of this mystery. Normally, this would upset me to no end because finding out a book is a cliffhanger and not having the rest of the story is a pet peeve of mine. But there's an ad in the back of the book that says the rest of the story is available on readdcentertainment.com, DC Comics' digital publication platform. But once you go to the site, you have to shell out $4.99 in order to get the rest of the story. I kinda feel like this is a bit underhanded. If you're going to advertise this in a promo comic, then the book offered needs to be free.

I had been waiting for Noir Alley to become available at my LCS ever since I saw an advertisement for this about 2 months ago. It was worth the wait but I'm not about to go digital to find out what happens at the end of Gotham Noir. I'll just wait until I come across it for a good deal in paper form.

Batman in Noir Alley is available for free in comic book shops nationwide now.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Batman/Elmer Fudd Special #1

The Wait is Over…

The book that I’ve been finally waiting for hit shelves Wednesday: the Batman/Elmer Fudd Special. I’ve been counting down the days until it’s release ever since I found out about the announcement for it sometime in May. So was the DC Comics/Looney Tunes crossover as good as my expectations?

My opinion of the book can be summed up in one word: Epic! However, only saying “epic” makes for a very small review.

That being said, let’s dig in a little deeper, shall we?  

Bat Season

The special starts off with Elmer going into a Gotham City saloon called Porky’s. His task is to kill a the man who murdered his wife- one Bugs ‘the Bunny.’ On exchange for his life, Bugs names the man who hired him to put out the hit, Bruce Wayne! After Fudd makes a play at Wayne, Batman goes on the prowl and Elmer the hunter becomes the hunted. However, it’s soon apparent that both Fudd and Wayne were set up. Thus Elmer and the Dark Knight join forces to uncover just who killed Silver St. Cloud. 

 Yes Bugs and Porky, along with Tweety, Sylvester, and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang are here! It makes perfect sense too! Batman has had one of the most colorful rogue’s galleries on all of comicdom. Therefore by converting all the Looney Tunes gang into thugs with features like those of animals visually works, all thanks to the deft pencils of Lee Weeks. For example, Bugs is a hit-man with buck teeth and an affinity for pickled carrots whereas Porky is a stuttering barkeep with a pudgy nose.

  Writer Tom King saved the best for last with this special. He really knew how to blend the two universes into one that actually could work in the monthly adventures of the Caped Crusader.

I’ve been reading the other DC/Warner Bros crossovers and I must say that this was the best of the bunch. Each special also has a backup story told in the Looney Tunes manner. For the most part, I really haven’t enjoy them. This one, also by Tom King with art by Byron Vaughns, was exceptional. It followed the classic rabbit season/duck season routine with Batman standing in for Daffy Duck. I laughed aloud several times.

A Sleeper Hit?

There’s been some hype about this book. I confess, It’s mostly all due to me. However, the Batman. Elmer Fudd Special is now currently sold out at my local comics shop. Plus, I’ve checked and learned that another area store has run out of copies as well. I point this out as the other crossovers haven’t been selling very well according to the owners I talked with. So if you decide to jump in on this title, it might be too late.

Or as Porky always says…

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Review originally published June 29, 2017 on outrightgeekery.com.