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). ( )

Marlowe takes the case of a rare gold coin that has been stolen from the home of a very wealthy and horrible old widow. She suspects her night club singer daughter-in-law, who recently left her spoiled son, so Marlowe sets off. Within two days he's stumbled across three dead men and finds that the widow has gotten him involved with very dangerous people.
A solid Marlowe noir with lots of entertaining wise-cracks and slang. First published in 1942. ( )

"From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away"

"High Window is the third in the series and sees Philip Marlowe trying to track down a rare gold coin that was part of a collection left to a mean spirited and totally unpleasant "dried up husk of a woman" who treats her highly strung secretary horribly, by her late husband.

A bit more of Marlowe's character is fleshed out in this book. We see that that under his hard shell lurks a big heart as he goes out of his way to help and take care of a seemingly innocent, long-suffering character. There seemed an added confidence in the writing which is as rich as ever, with some terrific descriptions of people and places, but I found it harder to engage with this one as much as I had the others. Marlowe is as hard-boiled, wise-cracking as ever but otherwise there aren't any really likeable characters in it. There is also a pervading cynicism throughout, intended I believe, that began to wear a bit thin towards the end. Despite that this book is worth reading for Chandler's writing style alone. ( )