Poodle Springs (Philip Marlowe Mystery)

Chandler, Raymond; Parker, Robert B

ISBN 10: 1408427699 ISBN 13: 9781408427699

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 Poodle Springs, Marlowe is fresh from his honeymoon with heiress Linda Loring, and living a life of idle leisure in the upmarket Californian town of the title. But being a kept man soon loses its charm and, bored and restless, Marlowe sets up shop as an investigator once more. Hired by a local criminal to find a gambler on the run from his debts, he is sucked into a world of bigamy, blackmail, and murder. . . The eighth and final Philip Marlowe novel, Poodle Springs was unfinished at the time of Raymond Chandler’s death in 1959. It remained so for another 30 years, until crime writer Robert B. Parker completed the novel to mark the centenary of Chandler’s birth. Starring Toby Stephens, this entertaining dramatization by Robin Brooks retains all pace and intrigue of the original book.

1 CD. 57 mins.

About this title

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. Robert B. Parker was an award-winning American author best known for his Spenser series of crime novels, but he also wrote many other works of fiction and nonfiction, including the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall books—and four Westerns. In 1977, Parker received an Edgar Award for Best Novel for Promised Land, and in 2002 he was awarded an Edgar Grand Master Award for his whole body of work. He died in 2010, aged 77.

From Library Journal:

Chandler died in 1959, leaving behind the opening chapters of this Philip Marlowe private investigator novel set in the 1950s, which Parker has completed. Here, Marlowe has a rich wife (shades of Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles) and has moved from Los Angeles to the big-buck community of Poodle Springs, where he is hired by the area crime boss to track down a missing local who has run out on a gambling debt. The plot evolves with murder, blackmail, and a little bigamy for good measure. Though there's more talk than action, and Marlowe's usual hard edges are rounded off a bit, there is still deep intrigue and lots of snappy dialogue. Completing a story started by another is difficult, especially when it involves an estalished character, but Parker has done an impressive job in adapting to Chandler's style and sense of humor. All one can say when reading this is, "Marlowe, it's good to have you back." Literary Guild alternate; Doubleday Book Club featured alternate; Mystery Guild main selection.
- Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: BBC Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1408427699
• ISBN 13: 9781408427699
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 1