Author : Raymond Chandler
What is it about : A selection of short stories in the early days before RC became famous and master of this genre - the street-wise, chain-smoking, whisky-swilling, gun-always-at-hand Private Detective at your service. These stories could be seen as the Author's trial runs where he honed his skills in the creation of the ultimate Californian P.I. Philip Marlowe whom you had probably met in movies or stories alike.
Some thoughts after
having read the book : It was the first time that I had really come across the formula writer - a writer so specialised in a genre and so prolific in his writing and creation that he churned out stories after stories using more or less the same structure and story line; almost like the hit TV series - think Miss Marple, Magnum P.I or the Colombo series. Here's the formula - P.I. bored to tears in his office as there had not been business for over a week, in came a thirty-something "dangerous" blond or a phone call from a police associate and related that a missing person needed to be found or contacted; P.I. then ran cross-country encountering all the nasty types, a few gun shots here and there, a few glasses (ponys) of whisky (rye) in between, 2 pages before the end then the (complex) plot explained through the P.I.'s acute observations; the bad guys went to jail and the P.I. got the cheque and drove back to his office downtown after a hard day's work.
Would I recommend this book to you : From what I have written, I might have sounded negative about this book but hey ! this was the master at work - you would get an action-packed story with an unexpected ending; PLUS an endless incredibly funny, cynical, observant one-liners (... a blond to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window ...) as well as American slangs up to your ears, so get your American Dictionary handy.
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