"His thin, claw-like hands were folded loosely on the rug, purple-nailed. A few locks of dry white hair clung to his scalp, like wild flowers fighting for life on a bare rock." Published in 1939, when Raymond Chandler was 50, this is the first of the Philip Marlowe novels. Its bursts of sex, violence, and explosively direct prose changed detective fiction forever. "She was trouble. She was tall and rangy and strong-looking. Her hair was black and wiry and parted in the middle. She had a good mouth and a good chin. There was a sulky droop to her lips and the lower lip was full."
Product Description
When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.
"Chandler [writes] like a slumming angel and invest[s] the sun-blinded streets of Los Angelos with a romantic presence."
--Ross Macdonald
Download Description
When a dying millionaire hires Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.
"Chandler [writes] like a slumming angel and invest[s] the sun-blinded streets of Los Angelos with a romantic presence."
ROSS MACDONALD "Raymond Chandler is a master."
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered."
THE NEW YORKER
"Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious."
ROBERT B. PARKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye."
LOS ANGELES TIMES
"Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner.... An original.... A great artist."
THE BOSTON BOOK REVIEW
"Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century.... Age does not wither Chandler's prose.... He wrote like an angel."
LITERARY REVIEW
"[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision."
JOYCE CAROL OATES, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
"Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence."
ROSS MACDONALD
"Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since."
PAUL AUSTER
"[Chandler]'s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that's like ours, but isn't."
CAROLYN SEE
"A serious rereading of the Marlowe novels and stories yields more surprises than a rereading of Hemingway."
RICHARD RUSSO, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE FALLS
Lists
Reviews
Images
Forums
Movies
TV Shows
DVDs
Music
Books
Games
