The laconic and principled private detective Philip Marlowe is hired for what appears to be a family related theft of a valuable coin. What he eventually uncovers is a convoluted murder and blackmail plot, also somewhat family related.

Raymond Chandler twisted words and phrases in a way that made them all his own. There are gems on almost every page. “I’m not tough,” Marlowe says to a woman. “Just virile.” He describes Los Angeles and its inhabitants in unique terms but his faces may be the best. There are “old men with faces like lost battles” and “women who should be young but have faces like stale beer,” and a man with “the sort of face that can turn from a polite simper to cold-blooded fury almost without moving a muscle.”

Chandler was an original. ( )

“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.”

Marlowe is hired to recover the Brasher Doubloon, an expensive rare coin that the owner believes was stolen by her daughter-in-law. Three murders plop into his investigation, both connected to the coin. “Marlowe practically knee-deep in dead men.” It's a good, fast-paced read and with Chandler you get the authentic noir vibe! I'm excited, and a bit sad, to be almost done with the series!

“A man leaning out of a high window. A long time ago.” ( )

Noir fiction at its best. The first-person narrative of Marlowe is the big draw for me in reading Chandler. And, Chandler is no ordinary writer. He's a superb writer of dialogue, description, and story. A real artist of the written word.

"From thirty feet away, she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away, she looked like something made up to be seen thirty feet away." ( )

Just read it again.

For an author, first person Point of View is a difficult voice to pull off well. Chandler is a master. Highly recommended and not just for the POV lesson, but a great plot, interesting, well-formed characters and of course Philip Marlowe. ( )

Hmmmm -- better than 4 stars but I am not quite sure it should get the whole 5.

A wealthy widow wants some stolen property returned but for the thief not to be prosecuted because she is convinced that the theft was done by her daughter-in-law. The client & other people in this book are all unattractive in one way or another but what made me like this mystery so much is the way Chandler shows you what life is like for Marlowe running a one-man detective agency with some scruples. The plot is convoluted yet realistic (more realistic than the first 2 books in the series I think). ( )