Rarely do I gush about an author of so-called "genre" fiction... since I never read it. But I love Lauren Bacall and watched the movie "The Big Sleep" and thought the dialogue was great so I grabbed a Chandler book to check out his stuff. I was blown away by his evocative descriptions of people and places. Never have I had that feeling of "being there" like when I read Chandler. And since I always feel like I was born in the wrong time, I'm so happy that I found someone who can take me back just by his lush descriptions.

Reading Chandler is a joy and a treat. The clever dialouge, snappy comebacks, the slang, all the dead bodies. I'm in agreement with the other reviews that said "Red Wind" is the best story in this book, but all four stories are superior works of fiction. God bless this author!

Some of the stories are better than others. I liked the last one of the four, "Red Wind" the best. Chandler wrote amazingly vivid descriptions of people's minute physical actions, their appearances, and physical surroundings. He painted visually georgeous portraits of crooks, lowlifes, and detectives. His plots were complex, too. The Lady in the Lake is also a beautiful book. Very high body count in his books and vivid corpses, too. It's no wonder he's still popular. Certainly no movie could do his work justice.

Perfect starting point for those wanting to find out who the hell this Chandler guy was. Way ahead of his time, and over the head of the "cat detective" set, these stories a pure gold. The John Dalmas character is essentially a raw Philip Marlowe, but the knight errant is still there, in an unrefined form. Bay City Blues, Mandarin's Jade, The Lady in the Lake...stories and attitudes that Tarrantino can only dream of ripping off. Read it now before La-La Land turns it into the next Demi Moore vehicle

Raymond Chandler died 43 years ago, yet the seven novels he wrote have ALL been in print since their original publication. Why? Because Chandler was a first-rate prose stylist who took the hard-boiled detective novel places it had never been before...and has seldom been since.

THE SELECTED LETTERS OF RAYMOND CHANDLER is for anyone who loves THE BIG SLEEP, FAREWELL MY LOVELY and all the rest. It gives us a chance to get inside Chandler's head, to listen to him expound on Hollywood, the art of writing, the publishing business, the agony of seeing a wife die a slow death.

Like Sam Clemens, Chandler wrote a good many letters. And like that other great American original, not all the letters are memorable, but a LOT of them have a snap and bite that still resonate a half century later. For example:

"Television is really what we've been looking for all our lives. It took a certain mount of effort to go to the movies. Somebody had to stay with the kids. You had to get the car out of the garage. That was hard work. And you had to drive and park. Sometimes you had to walk as much as half a block to the theater. Then people with big fat heads would sit in front of you and make you nervous. Reading took less physical effort, but you had to concentrate a little, even when you were reading a mystery...And every once in awhile you were apt to trip over a three-syllable word. That was pretty hard on the brain....

But television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain your mind of all thought. And there you are watching the bubbles in the primieval ooze. You don't have to concentrate. You don't have to react. You don't have to remember. You don't miss your brain because you don't need it. Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally. Apart from that, all is peace and quiet...And if some nasty-minded person comes along and says you look more like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind. He probably hasn't got the price of a television set."

Like I said. Chandler was one of a kind. Writing letters or writing novels.

This collection offers the fan of America's most under-rated novelist a glimpse into his mind, this relationships, his thoughts. The index allows a reader to find very specific references to subjects. Highly recommended for the serious student of Chandler.

This volume is bursting at the seams with Chandler's writings and it is an astonishing value even at the retail price. It even comes wrapped in plastic!!! Alas I do have one complaint, you can buy Double Indemnity on it's own in a seperate volume that is very much in print. The editors at LOA must be aware of this. If so, they must also be aware that "The Blue Dahlia" is no longer in print and has not been since 1976. Wouldn't it have made more since to eliminate "Double Indemnity" since it is readily available in another volume and replace it with "Blue Dahlia"? Couldn't an argument be made that in addition to it's scarcity "The Blue Dahlia" is also a better representation of Chandler's screenwriting talent because it his only produced solo effort and the fact that it garnered him an Oscar nomination?

Bottom line: LOA has redeemed itself for it's blatant lies on the Dust Jacket of "Stories and Early Novels" (see my review "Incomplete and Misleading")By the way, no one has ever explained why they neglected to include Chandler's last complete Marlowe story, "The Pencil".
I will be writing other reviews of Chandler collections undwe the clever title of "The Simple Art of Editing" and let me assure you that they do not hold up as well as this LOA masterpiece.

Contained in this volume are the last four (of seven) Marlowe novels, the Double Indemnity script co-written with Billy Wilder (including lines that were cut), his famous essay on "The Simple Art of Murder", one on "Writers in Hollywood", another titled "Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story", and finally "Notes (very brief, please) on English and American Style". Couple these with thoroughly entertaining and sometimes revealing letters to friends and fans, and you can't miss.

In one of these letters he even discusses fellow hardboiled writer Ross Macdonald's (here called John, as he hadn't changed his name yet) The Moving Target, which cribbed some ideas from The Big Sleep and Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man.

The novels themselves? Classic Chandler - enough said. If you'd like to know why you should expect the best in hardboiled detective fiction, well, read 'em all, or at least one. (If you're planning on that course of action, try the first in the series, The Big Sleep, included in a similar volume called Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories/The Big Sleep/Farewell, My Lovely/The High Window.)

Bottom line, this is required reading for anyone who won't read just anything but at the same time doesn't limit themself to Anna Karenina.

Raymond Chandler learned his craft, initially, by writing short stories for the famous hardboiled magazine, "Black Mask." When it came time to move on, Chandler "cannibalized" many of those early stories to create his first four novels, combining plot elements and scenes while expanding and amplifying their passages. During his lifetime, he never allowed the republication of the stories.

"Killer In The Rain" presents them, along with an excellent foreword by Phillip Durham in which he discusses Chandler's ability to heighten a description, deepen a mood, to prolong the tension in a situation through these reworkings; or, as Durham puts it, "to see, to sense, and to say." If you want to read these tales for their "story value," though, you're best served by skipping this Foreword until after you've read them.

The stories, true to the genre, are invariably violent, even brutal, particularly in their resolutions. ("The rule was," Chandler once wrote, "when in doubt, have someone come through the door with a gun in his hand.") Yet, even at this early stage in his career, as these stories illustrate, both Chandler's singular style and thematic sense were already largely in place.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good literature. It contains short stories written for the pulp magazine Black Mask, and provides a fascinating insight into how Chandler created his novels, many of which are based on the short stories within this book. Even if you've never read Chandler before then these stories would provide a fine introduction to the incredible style of writing he created.

This series of short stories is my favorite Chandler work. He doesn't overindulge in "shamus-speak", the plots are tight and Chandler does a fine job putting you in the detective's place, as in what the hell do I do now? These stories were pieced together to help create Chandler's later novels, thus were left out of other short story collections, but I think they are terrific. It's sure fun to imagine Robert Mitchum playing the detective, too.

Postwar L.A. -- and especially Hollywood -- is the setting for Chandler's fifth Marlowe novel which, like the time and place (and the author himself), is a little "off." Marlowe's beginning to tire, his loneliness is a bit more apparent, and the disillusionment has started to etch permanent lines on him.

None of which stops him. Neither does it make "The Little Sister" a bad work. In fact, it holds up remarkably well alongside Chandler's first four novels.

Chandler draws upon contemporary events and personages for much of his inspiration here (something he did in several earlier stories and novels, to a lesser degree); the photo which triggers the action in "Sister," for example, is based on an incident involving gangster Bugsy Siegel . . . but then the character of Steelgrave, himself, bears a more than passing resemblance to the then-recently deceased hood. It's equally evident that Chandler relied upon his recent screenwriting experience (and exposure to Paramount and Universal studios) for material and characters. There's an element of gleeful revenge, I suspect, for example, in the character of agent Sheridan Ballou: certain characteristics, such as his tendency to strut up and down his office twirling a mallaca cane, can only have been inspired by director/screenwriter Billy Wilder (with whom Chandler, collaborating on the screenplay for "Double Indemnity," shared an entirely mutual loathing).

Other characters, primarily a pair of mismatched thugs sent to intimidate Marlowe, are pure burlesque; Chandler appears to be simply indulging himself here (while he simultaneously manages yet another dig at the movie industry). But then, in scenes such as a Bay City boarding house or -- even more on point -- a mood-laden confrontation in a doctor's office ("Things are waiting to happen.") -- Chandler emerges as still the master at stretching tension beyond its breaking point.

There's also that memorable passage when Marlowe takes a latenight drive over Cahuenga Pass ("Easy, Marlowe, you're not human tonight."), in which Chandler shows himself unmatched at juxtaposing mood and movement and thought, particularly when he wants to advance the plotline and divulge his protagonist's mindset without appearing to do so. This, for me, has always been Chandler's greatest skill: the ability to achieve art without letting himself get caught at it.

But is "The Little Sister" Chandler's best? Not close.

But Chandler still delivers. As does Marlowe.

"The Little Sister" was my introduction to Raymond Chandler and his immortal private detective, Philip Marlowe. I opened it up for the first time four years ago and have read it twice more since then.

I had never read a hard-boiled mystery before, and "The Little Sister" exceeded my expectations. The punchy dialogue, the terrific characters, Chandler's trademark similies, Marlowe's toughness interlaced with a penchant for justice, the contemporary view into the Hollywood of the late 1940's. "The Little Sister" electrified me and sparked an insatiable appetite for more Chandler. I read his remaining novels in rapid succession, always buying the next one before reaching the end of the novel at hand so I could immediately plunged back into Marlowe's long-vanished world.

I have since read all of Chandler's novels and short stories, and "The Little Sister" still remains my favorite, closely followed by "Farewell, My Lovely."

Raymond Chandler is possibly the greatest detective fiction writer of all time. The only people that even hold a candle to him are Hammet and in some ways Mickey Spillane. Cahndler was able to take a genre and transform it from what many considred trash into an art. In my opinon The Little Sister is his best work. He was able to captrue all of the characters attitudes and emotions with expert skill. Even though I enjoyed all of his other novels this one sticks in my mind simply becasue in this novel we actually see Marlowe willing to give up. In this novel he complains about his pay rate and almost throws in the hat but he doesn't. Marlowe finally shows that even he can become dejected to a point where he considers giving up and that is one of many reasons this novel is my favorite of Chandler's. Read it and give it a try.

"Nothing made it my business except curiosity. But strictly speaking, I hadn't had any business in a month."(21) For Phillip Marlowe, the irresistibly aloof private detective who stars in Chandler's impressive detective novel, Farewell, My Lovely, crime is not something he seems able or willing to avoid. Hitting the streets of Los Angeles in the midst of the American gambling craze of the 1930's, Marlowe finds himself an inextricable player in a search for knowledge of past and present crimes and criminals.
Though he appears, on the surface, to be little more than a nosy, bumbling "private dick," his successful unraveling of a closely interwoven crowd of crooks proves, as one suspect cop observes, that Marlowe "played...smart....You must got something we wasn't told about." (228) Keeping his cards in his hand for most of the noel, Chandler shows that both he and Marlowe are "smart," leading the reader on a circuitous trail that shakes out only in the novel's final pages.
The story begins with a happenstance encounter between Marlowe and an ex-con called "Moose" Malloy. Marlowe cannot resist pursuing the suspicious-looking hulk of a man and soon finds himself both running after and from a variety of shady characters. In the course of his private investigations, Marlowe survives several near brushes with death, getting "sapped" by thugs near the novel's start, pumped full of opium in a suspicious hospital-like place, and stealthily boarding a closely guarded gambling boat to confront an infamous mobster in the middle of the night. In the end, Marlowe succeeds at untangling the web of murders and crimes that keep him running throughout the novel, but not before giving the reader the run-around as well. Chandler's smart, articulate prose lends itself well to the captivating story and intriguing characters that combine to make this a must-read for fans of detective fiction.

Chandler is the greatest writer of detective fiction and a great author period. To ignore these books is to ignore much of what is great about American literature.

Earlier anthologies of Raymond Chandler's works mostly center upon what have come to be known as his 'big four' or earliest novels -- The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady In The Lake -- or upon his later, and admittedly (with the possible exception of The Little Sister) 'inferior' works. Chandler's earlier short stories ( many of which he "cannibalized," to use his word, for the material in his subsequent novels) are normally treated as a separate genre altogether.

This particular collection, rightly, combines Chandler's first three novels with the best of his earlier short stories, recognizing the thematic unity in those works. (Good as it is, "The Lady In The Lake" demands to be treated separately from Chandler's earlier efforts.)

Chances are, if you're reading this, you've read most, if not all, of Chandler's Phillip Marlowe novels. You may as well have read many, if not all, of the short stories presented here. But have you read these novels, and these short stories, TOGETHER in this context? Likely not. But you deserve to.

In the short stories, for example, there are protagonists named John Evans, Ted Carmody and Tony Resick (the last two of which, interestingly, inhabit locations which were most likely Los Angeles' Hotel Mayfair, with which Chandler had more than a nodding familiarity). And when, in Chandler's writings, did they meld themselves into what would be his penultimate creation, Phillip Marlowe?

And at which point did Chandler begin to write, as fellow writer Ross McDonald termed it, "like a slumming angel . . ."? The answers to both questions may well lie here, in this collection.

Pick up this collection! Read it! Discover the material anew!

Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe detective stories, while never dull, can sometimes have almost hysterical, over-the-top plots which become terribly confusing to decipher. Fortunately the cracking dialogue and bizarre characters compensate nicely. In The High Window the author takes a breather, and delivers a story which is relatively simple ... and enjoyable to read.

Like in many Marlowe stories, our naughty private eye is hired by a rich recluse. This time the recluse is a rich widow who believes her trashy daughter-in-law has stolen a rare coin inherited from her deceased hubby. As Marlowe investigates we understand that the daughter-in-law keeps some rather nasty company, and before long Marlowe is tangled in multiple homicide situation. Of course in the end it is all resolved in a surprisingly uncontrived way (..at least by Raymond Chandler standards).

My only real complaint, or rather disappointment, is the general absence of Marlowe's normally razor-sharp sarcasm. In other books Marlowe can be extremely brutish with the ladies, and the ladies all fall in love with him. In The High Window we do not see this side of Marlowe, and so he seems somewhat two-dimensional in this story.

Bottom line: most definitely not a Chandler classic, but certainly a very enjoyable read. Recommended.

I decided to give this Raymond Chandler novel a shot after a vexing round of midterm examinations. If I didn't read something light and entertaining, my head would have exploded! I'd never read noir before, but I found this book to be pretty representative of what one pictures when one thinks of noir: seedy characters and snappy dialogue in a big, dark city teeming with danger. Chandler apparently gave new life to this genre when he wrote a few (an unfortunate few) crime novels starring Phillip Marlowe, a private detective who has since become immortalized in film and T.V. Chandler didn't even start writing these books until he was in his late 50's. Thank goodness he did write them, because this book is a real hoot!

The High Window finds Marlowe on the trail of a missing coin called the Brasher doubloon. Within a few pages we begin to see an endless parade of seedy and suspicious characters, such as Mrs. Murdock, a port-drinking hothead who hires Marlowe to find the coin. Other characters include a scummy nightclub owner, a couple of dirty dames, and a cast of supporting characters both wicked and wise. At the center of it all is Marlowe, doggedly pursuing the truth through all the deceits and danger. I really can't go into the story because doing so would probably ruin the suspense for anyone who hasn't read the book. Just be prepared to see some wacky characters and great scenes.

This book wouldn't be worth mentioning at all if it weren't for the dialogue. The language in this book is so clever and snappy that it literally makes the story. You'll howl out loud at some of the smart quips Marlowe tosses off as he tries to track down the doubloon. Another interesting aspect of the book is that everything occurs in the present tense. There is almost no history to know or anything in the future to worry about. This makes the story scream along at a fast pace; so fast that you won't want to put the book down. I never really thought I'd care for crime noir, but this book makes me want to read more! Recommended.

Raymond Chandler has written some excellent crime/mystery novels, and this is no exception. The High Window was Chandler's third novel with Philip Marlowe. But don't worry if you haven't read the first two (The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely) because The High Window could easily have been the first book.

This novel works for several reasons. First, it is very easy to read. This is a 'page-turner' in every sense of the term. Secondly, the story is interesting and always has your attention. Chandler unveils the story in a way that makes you want to keep reading. Finally, the characters are almost always well done. Of course, Philip Marlowe is a great character, an old tough guy with some great dialogue. Although the book was published in the early 1940's, it does not feel like it at all.

To those unaquainted with Chandler, the closest thing I could compare it to would be the 1974 movie CHINATOWN, written by Robert Towne. That's the style of it. It's different from Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

Give it a shot. Chances are it will grab you and you'll read it quickly.

This book provides an entertaining look at film adaptations of Chandler's books and at the movies made from his screenplays. If you've read anything about Chandler, nothing here will be news to you, but if you haven't, this is a good introduction, with long plot-summary-type discussions of the movies and plenty of pictures.

Those years of the 30's gave us the incredible "pulp" magazines of several genres, basically adventure, western, science fiction, mystery and detective. The detective pulps such as "Black Mask" and "Dime Detective" were training grounds for the like of Erle Stanley Gardner, Dashell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler.

This volume gives us Raymond Chandler's essay of the detective genre plus twelve novellas and short stories basically from the pulp magazines.

Four of these are Phillip Marlowe adventures, all written before the novels. Of these, "Goldfish" and "Trouble is My Business" truly stand out. However, there are three others: "Smart-Aleck Kill" with Johnny Dalmas, the notable "Guns at Cyrano's" with Ted Carmady, and "The King in Yellow" featuring hotel detective turned private eye Steve Grayce. Each of these three stories feature a very obvious antecedent to Phillip Marlowe.

Raymond Chandler is noted especially for his concise but rich descriptions of locale and also of characters. These are practically photographic descriptions. Also, there's Chandler's dialogue complete with sardonic humor and wisecracks. The plot is swift paced with nary a dull moment. He was well trained by BLACK MASK's editor who suggested that whenever the plot threatens to bog down, have a man with a gun in his hand walk into the scene.

Dashell Hammett and Raymond Chandler shaped the tough private eye genre which spawned Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Richard Prather's Shell Scott, Robert Parker's Spenser, and also today's police detective genre, most notably Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch.

Chandler termed this genre, as opposed to the more genteel Agatha Christy type of mystery, "realistic". Well, that's arguable. I don't know about you, but I don't ordinarily find dead bodies whenever I walk into an empty room, nor are the people who knock on my door likely to have guns in their hands, or even on their persons, so I question the "realistic" label. But these stories are good fun. The body count is rather high in most of the stories, and you can often figure out who the murderer is by eliminating the characters who get killed along the way.

Be that as it may, this volume is indeed highly recommended.

The essay which gives this collection its title is the apotheosis of Chandler - the absolute distillation of the meaning of "Chandleresque" (or for that matter "Hammett-ness"). Here Chandler steps back from the creation of Noir fiction and, in a sometimes bitter or shrp way, comes down hard on the Hams and Part-timers of a literary form he believed to be worthy of elevation from the term genre.

Chandler chose to use the conventions of the Crime Novella format to his own - rather than any readership or editors - ends. Less monothematic than the given Short Story format, pre-flavoured with the expectations of the Crime buyer, the Novella and its narrow context of the stark contrasts of the Urban existence allow Chandler to define a notion of modern man and the modern morality of the individual in a socially dislocated environment - years before Welles and decades ahead of the Quention Tarantino's who currently tease us with the same issues and questions.

In "The Simple Art of Murder" the short stories and mini-novellas are sharp and compelling; in the title-giving essay, Chandler sits back and confesses to what compels him to write so. To paraphrase the author himself (speaking of Hammett for whom he had a great admiration), he took the art of murder from the counttry vicarage and "gave it back to the people on the street, to whom it really belonged anyway". Marlowe is silhouetted by his creator in his concluding idea of why a man such as him will always exist, why his morality must exist .. "down these mean streets a man must go, a man who is neither tarnished nor afraid...". Written with so much conviction that his argument stands up like a spoon in it, for this essay alone - and the future years of musing on and quoting whole tracts that will instantly lodge in your memory for ever - no-one interested in what underlies the fascination of "noir" should go down a dark alley at night without it.

Raymond Chander fans who associate the author's name only with that of his famous creation, Phillip Marlowe, will enjoy "The Simple Art Of Murder," a collection of Chandler stories originally published in everything from "Dime Detective" magazine to "The Saturday Evening Post." These stories, in which Marlowe as we know him is nowhere to be found, trace the evolution of Chandler's distinctive style and find him experimenting with various characters and points of view. Several stories feature third-person narration, contrary to the Marlowe novels' first-person perspective, and many stories feature protagonists who are obviously Marlowe prototypes. Naturally, all of the tales feature Chandler's poetic dialogue, remarkable descriptions, and enjoyably tangled plots. Highlights of the collection include "The Simple Art of Murder," an essay by the author on the nature of mystery-writing, and the haunting "I'll Be Waiting," in which a lonely hotel detective tries to help a beautiful guest and ends up paying a dearer price than he could ever have imagined. My personal favorite among the stories is the surprisingly funny "Pearls Are A Nuisance," which proves that Chandler really did have a sense of humor. Anyone looking for a fresh perspective on one of mystery's best writers should pick up "The Simple Art Of Murder."

Chandler wrote but 7 novels and most critics and readers divide them into two groups, the first four beginning with The Big Sleep and ending with The Lady in the Lake. These were the books that, if you hadn't already read Hammett, introduced the hardboiled thriller and the Southern California noir scene of the 30s and 40s to the general public. Most readers tend to feel that these were Chandler's best books.

He wrote three more, however, The Little Sister in the late 40s, The Long Goodbye in the early 50s, and Playback a few years later. The Little Sister is generally fairly favorably viewed, and there are many critics and readers who feel that The Long Goodbye is Chandler's masterpiece. It is his longest, most subtle, most introspective, and, to me, his most compelling. Many people consider it a major part of American literature and I think it might well be the best thriller ever written.

Playback, written after Chandler had moved to LaJolla, his beloved wife had died, and his alcoholism had become semi-acute, is a disaster. The writing is flat and uninspired, the metaphors and similes that once flowed so brilliantly are forced and trite ("he was an impervious as the square root of minus five"), and Marlowe is clearly just going through the motions.

If you've read all the others and loved them, I probably can't dissuade you from reading this one. If you liked the grotesquely bad Poodle Springs Murders started by Chandler and finished by Robert Parker, then you'll probably find this one acceptable also. If you barely made your way through Poodle Springs, you'll feel the same about Playback -- and wish that Chandler's last book had been the brilliant Long Goodbye.

Why do I love Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels so much? I love them for Marlowe's edgy, wisecracking comments that drive its recipients mad. I love the gorgeous, incendiary women who linger just a bit on this side of evil. I love the twisty and turny plots and Marlowe's dogged search for the truth. In a world full of liars and crooks one can always depend upon Philip Marlowe's steely honesty and integrity. He is never in it for the money.

"Playback" has all of these elements but, unfortunately, in far lesser quantities than in Chandler's other Philip Marlowe books. In "Playback" Marlowe is assigned to follow this woman without knowing why and to report back on what he finds out about her. All the typical plot devices are there, but the results are far less than scintillating and are sometimes rather dull. If I were to pick out, however, my favorite part of the book it would be Marlowe's conversation with an elderly and infirm man who is staying at a hotel where Marlowe is holed up. Their discussion about the belief in God is incredibly sharp and extremely relevant to a man of Marlowe's profession.

All in all, despite its shortcomings, "Playback," while not top Chandler, is still Philip Marlowe and that can never be bad.

If not my very favorite author, Raymond Chandler is up in the top five. Which is why I loath to rate this book as I do.

The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye were masterworks in Noir literature. The imagery in The Lady in the Lake and Farwell, My Lovely drew you in.

Playback, sadly, is but a shadow of the greats it followed. Shallow images, a not quite transparent plot, and well established characters acting, well, out of character. Marlowe burns a few bridges in this final novel (I've read Poodle Springs, and that wasn't Marlowe), and I think Chandler knew the end was near.

Whenever I get the urge to slip back into Marlowe's trenchcoat (and those urges come often), I still read the series all the way through. But this book is like a ride home from Disneyland: It's a necessary part of the journey, but the one you look forward to the least.