Well, it seems I do not go along with classic noirs. I tried Hashmett and I tried Chandler without any success. This one was better than the other but I cannot declare that I like it. What went wrong? Not sure, I guess is the dated writing, the sexism, the plot which did not interest me and the bland/blunt characters. I can see the value of these novels but they are not for me. Having say that, I love Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther but he is a bit younger, I guess.

Sometimes, when our dogs get really, really excited, they wag their tails so hard, they fall on their asses, then they slide a little bit on our hardwood floors.That's what happened to me with this novel, this week. It made me wag my tail so hard, I fell on my ass. I'm writing this review from the hardwood floor.Here's the thing: this book isn't for everyone. It's American “detective fiction” from the 1930s. You know. . . pulp fiction, “noir fiction,” edgy, pulpy, stylized novels from a distinct...

How many hardboiled detective novels have been written since 1939, the year Raymond Chandler introduced his perceptive, quick-witted LA tough guy, private eye Philip Marlowe? Round to the nearest 10,000. That's hardboiled as in a world of crooked cops, organized crime, double-crossing grifters and every other door in a downtown office reeking of swindle, sex angles or shady business deals. In such a world, it's every citizen for themselves and an honest detective can trust absolutely nobody, fre...

“The game I play is not spillikins. There’s always a large element of bluff connected with it…When you hire a boy in my line of work it isn’t like hiring a window-washer and showing him eight windows and saying: ‘Wash those and you’re through.’ You don’t know what I have to go through or over or under to do your job for you. I do it my way. I do my best to protect you and I may break a few rules, but I break them in your favor. The client comes first, unless he’s crooked. Even then all I do is h...

Raymond Chandler first published The Big Sleep in 1939, introducing us to the world of Philip Marlowe. A modern, noir like detective story, The Big Sleep changed the genre from passive interactions to action packed thrills between the private eye and criminals. Set in 1930s Los Angeles, then a sleepy town controlled by the mob as much as the police, The Big Sleep is a non stop action thriller. General Sherwood has hired private eye detective Philip Marlowe to solve the mystery of the whereabouts...

A killing reading! PAINT IT BLACK A nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy. That was the line that hook me when I watched the classic film adaptation, the one produced in 1946, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.While I loved the whole movie, that scene between Marlowe (Bogart) and the character of General Sternwood (Charles Waldron) at the glasshouse (in the beginning of the story) was what hooked me. It’s a wonderful dialogue, full of vices, smoking...

Since I've been reading a lot of detective-type urban fantasy lately, I decided to pick up one of the original texts of the genre, just to see what it was like. Chandler wrote this back in 1939, and the book itself holds up remarkably well even though it's been 70 years. It's very readable. Some of the slang is a little opaque, sure, but not nearly as much as you'd think. And some of the intuitive leaps Philip Marlow takes are a little difficult to grasp. But I'm not sure if that's because:1) Th...

Okay, so it wasn't bad. There's lots of fistfights and shooting and dames, and our detective hero is appropriately jaded and tight-lipped. The bad guys are crazy, the women are freaks in both the streets and the sheets, and there's a subplot involving a pornography racket. Everyone talks in 30's-tastic slang and usually the reader has no idea what everyone keeps yelling about. It's a violent, fast-paced, garter-snapping (the Depression equivalent of bodice-ripping, I imagine) detective thriller,...

She was the first thing I saw when I walked into the bookstore. Such a looker I damn near tripped over a stack of calf-high hardbacks set next to a stand of morning papers. "I'm sorry," she said. "We're not quite open yet." "That's okay," I told her. "Neither are my eyes." I could tell right away I wasn't going to win any hosannas by being a smart-aleck. "I need a book," I continued by way of apology. "Something fun but dark. I'm looking at five hundred miles today, but I'm not in the mood for...

It is always a pleasure to revisit a good book and find it even better than you remember. But it is humbling to discover that what you once thought was its most obvious defect is instead one of its great strengths. That was my recent experience with Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.I had read it twice before—once twenty years, once forty years ago—and have admired it ever since for its striking metaphors, vivid scenes, and tough dialogue. Above all, I love it for its hero, Philip Marlowe, the cl...