Whatever you have to say about his plots, there is no short story writer more vivid than Chandler(at least at pulling you into a specific and detailed universe in just a few pages). It's heartbreaking to leave the characters when the stories are over.

I've read most of Raymond Chandler's novels. He has a way of describing his surroundings that I find unmatched by any other writer I've read, from the drapes on the windows down to the pattern on the carpet. I don't have to use my imagination to fill in the gaps. That's good or bad depending on your point of view. I like it. Now, these short stories. They were both refreshing and nostalgic at the same time. Coming into them after the novels, I quickly realized that Raymond Chandler was an author who gleefully plagiarized himself! There are elements of most of these stories in his novels, plot lines from two or more stories combined into a novel, characters who are the same but different, places that are familiar. I could be specific, but I think you'll have more fun figuring it out for yourself. If you haven't read the novels yet, read this first. If you have, it will be like getting together with an old friend and reminiscing.

Just in case you noticed I've only read 17 books so far this year, keep in mind one of them was 3 full novels in one volume (Dashiell Hammett), and, in the case of Chandler's collected stories, the book in question was 1,299 tiny-print pages long. Plus ARCs and WIPs! I've read lots of ARCs and WIPs, many of which I can't list on GoodReads yet. (I feel better now.)

The very definition of hard-boiled, this collection of short fiction is my first time reading any of Raymond Chandler's work. It's clear that Chandler was a very significant influence on Frank Miller's Sin City series of graphic novels and fans of the genre are better off for it.

Booze, broads and bullets indeed.

Casi imprescindible

Raymond Chandler is the master of noir fiction. This book is the only complete edition of his stories and is chock full of hard-boiled detective stories populated by cunning criminals, good cops, bad cops, sexy blondes and tough detectives, including the famous Philip Marlowe. These are just great stories of the L.A. underworld of the 1930's, '40's and 50's.

It's better than 4 stars, but I couldn't quite justify giving it 5. My big regret is it is a library book and I had to get all 13,000 pages and all 25 short stories read in such a short period of time. I would have enjoyed it more if I could have read it over a longer period of time. Generally speaking I don't like short stories because, well, they are short. I like big thick novels where you really get to meet the characters and fall in love with them. However, Chandler's way with words is so awesome I didn't mind the meet-and-greet-and-move-on aspect. I started writing down some of his sentences because I knew I could never remember them all. There were so many I just wrote a few of the best. Here are just a few examples from my tiny sample. "Something prodded my back. It might have been a finger, but I didn't think it was." "As a bluff, mine was thinner than the gold on a week-end wedding ring." "He got out a billfold that was not quite as big as a bale of hay." "His own breathing was heavy enough to iron a shirt with." The amazing thing was Chandler never repeated a simile/metaphor/description. What kept me from giving this a 5-star rating was the similarity of so many of the stories. The detective got careless, got conked on the head, lost his gun - not once, but 2 or 3 times per story. I got so I wanted to yell at whichever detective it was: "Don't go in there!" Also, some of the plots got so convoluted I had to go back and re-read parts that went on before. Although most of the stories followed a similar outline, several were completely off the grid. A couple were along the lines of a Twilight Zone story and several had a completely different kind of sleuth. My favorite story was one of these - "Pearls Are a Nuisance." In addition to writing down great descriptive quotes, I also jotted down a few that are probably lost on younger generations. For example: "automatic elevator," "Then I dropped another nickel and dialed," "I pronged the receiver," "The hall was empty except for a milkman starting down the back stairs with his wiry tray of bottles."

This mammoth volume collects all of Chandler's short stories, a few of which evolved into Marlowe novels (Killers in the Rain, Lady in the Lake). There are a couple of odd forays into fantasy (a magic door, invisibility), but otherwise they are in his more familiar style.

A real treat for Chandler fans.

Contos policiais mais interessantes : O Homem que gostava de cães ( o que possui o enredo mais original, principalmente por causa de Jerry) e Procure a rapariga ( o caso mais misterioso e que me lembra a série "Casos Arquivados ").

Não são policiais que nos preendem e supreendem como os da Agatha Christie

While a fun collection of short stories, Chandler is much more adapt at writing in longer form. It was interesting to read the short story version of "The Lady In the Lake," it is not a Philip Marlowe story, Chandler did a lot of work changing this story up while keeping some of the structure of plot the same.

No fan of detective stories here, yet oddly I seemed always eager to start the next one in this collection. As Chandler eventually recognized, his longer works are better. If you haven't read one of those, then try "The Big Sleep" or "The Simple Art of Murder". Good stories those and quite respectable literature, and fun to read.

Not as good as his more famous novels, but with this omnibus one can chart Chandler's ascent from budding Pulp author to the master of his craft.