Raymond Chandler Playback

Chandler, Raymond

ISBN 10: 1408427540 ISBN 13: 9781408427545

Publisher: BBC Books, 2011

Synopsis

Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the 1940s and 1950s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amidst the corruption he encounters daily. In Playback, Marlowe is awakened early in the morning by a phone call from a lawyer. Clyde Umney instructs him to meet the eight o’clock train from Chicago, and shadow one of the passengers. The lady in question, Eleanor King, is beautiful, classy, and clearly unhappy. Obediently, Marlowe follows her—all the way to Esmerelda, where she’s going under the name Betty Mayfield and being leaned on by a cheap blackmailer. Stuck doing a sneaky job for people he doesn’t like, Marlowe feels even grubbier than usual: and he’s soon in more trouble than usual too as he comes up against gangsters, hard men, and a hitman. . . Starring Toby Stephens, this exciting dramatization retains all the verve of Chandler’s last novel.

1 CD. 56 mins.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Marlowe is hired by an influential lawyer he's never herd of to tail a gorgeous redhead, but decides he prefers to help out the redhead. She's been acquitted of her alcoholic husband's murder, but her father-in-law prefers not to take the court's word for it.
"Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence: " -- Ross Macdonald

About the Author

Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888. He was educated at Dulwich College, London and studied international law in France and Germany. He published a number of poems and essays in local papers and worked as a reporter, essayist, and book reviewer. After serving for the Canadian Army during World War I he became a bookkeeper and auditor for Dabney Oil Syndicate. In 1939 he published The Big Sleep to instant acclaim in Britain and the US, introducing the world to his iconic private eye, Philip Marlowe. With Farewell My Lovely and The Long Goodbye, Chandler cemented his reputation as a giant of American popular culture and master of a style of detective fiction that would be widely admired and imitated. Chandler turned to screenwriting with Double Indemnity. He continued to write for Hollywood during the heyday of the Hollywood studio system, receiving an Oscar nomination for The Blue Dahlia. In 1946 Chandler received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for screenplay and in 1954 for novel writing. During the last year of his life he was made President of the Mystery Writers of America. He died from pneumonia in 1959.

About this edition

• Publisher: BBC Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1408427540
• ISBN 13: 9781408427545
• Binding: Audio CD
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 1