Eight years ago, Moose Malloy and cute little redhead Velma were getting married-until someone fingered Malloy for an armed robbery. Now he is out of prison, and he wants Velma back. Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is in a bit of a dry patch and has no other work on so decides to help Malloy. But soon what started as a missing person search becomes something much more sinister.

This is the second book in the series and once again we get the 'mean' streets of Los Angeles ranging from the seedy joints lining Central Avenue to the estates in Beverly Hills and Brentwood Heights before heading to the fictional Bay City, loosely based on a crooked Santa Monica.

Marlowe is a world-weary, 'hardboiled' PI who is always quick with a witty quip and is the antipathy of the phrase dogged, no matter what is done to him physically he just keeps ploughing on as if to prove the adage that 'you can't keep a good man down'.

Moose Malloy is also an interesting character. We first meet him literally throwing a guy bodily out of his way, he is a single-minded maniac but one that tends to hurt people without really intending to, he simply doesn't realise his own strength.

But what makes this an interesting read is the prose. The book is dotted with wonderful metaphors that just bring the people and places to life, often with a sardonic humor.

On the downside the book is also littered with examples of casual racism and misogyny which simply wouldn't be accepted today. I'm not a fan of censorship and want to read books just as they were written but that doesn't mean that I don't feel uncomfortable whilst I'm doing so, hence why I've marked it down.

Como ya dije antes, no me ha gustado nada de nada! Es más, me ha encantado! Desde luego Raymond Chandler supo crear un personaje único, irónico y humano que a día de hoy sigue enamorando al lector.

Philip Marlow makes for a distinctly distasteful protagonist. He's a homophobic, mysogynist racist with a pretty large booze and cigarettes monkey hanging from his back. A lot of this can be put down to the time in which he operates; almost everybody held the same prejudices in that time and place. It still makes for uncomfortable reading for this 21st century liberal at times.

Why am I reading this, then? Well, it's pretty simple: Chandler's writing is phenomenal. He pretty much defined the crime noir genre with his beautifully descriptive writing. (Could he be any more seminal? Sorry; wrong Chandler...) He doesn't so much write as paint pictures with words and beautiful, if grimy, pictures they are.

Also, his 'voice' is so distinctive and so engaging that it supersedes the unlikeable nature of his characters and skewers the reader like a maggot on a rusty fishhook, making it impossible to look away. It's compulsive, addictive fare that defies the reader not to enjoy it. I'm certainly whipping through these books like a vindaloo through my digestive system.

I wish I had Lauren Bacall's looks and a mouth as salty as Phillip Marlowe's. The characters are such great throw backs to the days when men were Men and women were Dames. Chandler's writing is amazingly rich for this genre and the plot lines are just convoluted enough to keep you guessing. Phillip Marlowe is a great faceted character which contrasts nicely against the one-dimensional villains, cops and women who populate the stories. If authors like Sue Grafton are the gummi bears of the genre (low-cal, low fat, but tasty and fun), Raymond Chandler is the 70% dark chocolate.

Raymond Chandler creates a world of grime and crime in his second novel Farewell, My Lovely. Protagonist and private detective Phillip Marlowe falls into a case when he's taken into an old nightclub with a large ex-con named Moose Malloy. Malloy is looking for his girl Velma, but it seems that the place has been taken under new ownership. Malloy winds up killing a man there, unable to control his temper, but that isn't Marlowe's only trouble. He goes along for the ride on a jewelry ransom deal where his client is brutally beaten to death. Things get stranger and stranger the more things happen, and plenty does.

Even if you've seen any or all of the movie versions, you'll probably find yourself guessing to the very end. How? Because Chandler creates a world like no other, a world truly his own. (He preferred Dick Powell as Marlowe in the 40s noir film Murder, My Sweet, an adaptation of this book.)

Chandler has an amazing grasp of the Marlowe character. Every line is distinct and memorable. Despite the lurid setting, you'll probably find yourself laughing at Marlowe's wit and sarcasm. This is no children's book, but it's an indulgent read. Don't miss it.

Mi primer acercamiento a la obra de Chandler ha sido un poco justito. No me ha terminado de engachar, pero ha estado bien. Lo he disfrutado, pero sin encantarme.

Esta novela negra nos va a narrar las peripecias de un temerario detective llamado Philip Marlowe cuando se ve inmerso por casualidad en un asesinato. A raíz de este hecho, empezaran a sucederse hechos extraños y aparecerán personajes que irán liando la trama cada vez más. Todo esto completará una trama bastante adictiva que nunca aburre.

Como digo, el libro se lee muy rápido. La acción siempre va en aumento, cosa que facilita la lectura. Quizás el principal problema que he encontrado ha sido el tipo de novela en si. Me encanta la novela negra, pero quizás este tipo, donde es imposible ir siguiendo la trama y haciendo tus cábalas sobre que sucede, me resulta menos atrapante. Las situaciones se iban complicando cada vez más, e iban saliendo nuevos personajes, que llevaban a otros y otros, pero al lector le era imposible adivinar que sucedía hasta las últimas páginas donde hay un giro bastante obvio.

También me hubiera gustado un poco más de representación femenina en el transcurso de la trama, pero hay que ser realista, es una novela negra de corrupción, detectives y crímenes y está escrita en el 40. No sé puede pedir mucho más.

En definitiva, que esperaba un poquito más, pero aún así me parece un libro bastante ligero, en el buen sentido, y muy bien escrito. Quiero leer El sueño eterno, que los seguidores de este autor lo ponen como lo mejor de su obra.

Adiós muñeca

Un 4.5/5 se lleva.

Otra muy buena novela de Chandler, su segunda con Marlowe con una estructura similar a la anterior.

La historia comienza con una situación complicada para Marlowe mientras está buscando a una mujer desaparecida. En el local donde se encuentra se comete un crimen causado por un delincuente recién salido de la cárcel.

Esta situación hará que la investigación se divida entre los dos casos mientras no dejan de aparecer personajes alrededor para complicar más el asunto, sobre todo mujeres que se ven atraídas por el detective.

Una buena estrategia del autor esta de complicarle la vida a Marlowe metiéndolo en líos de muertes a su alrededor, además de presentarle a mujeres fatales que quieren su perdición, bueno, no todas .

Él también se deja llevar por las mujeres y el whisky

Not as good as The Long Goodbye; it did a very good job as a hardboiled detective story, but didn't do much else. It is a very well-crafted crime novel with an amazing plot, and Philip Marlowe was as beautifully cunning and resourceful as he always is. Unfortunately, I am too easily wearied by mystery plots and characters who are never off their game. I enjoyed all of Marlowe's banter, but really, it gets boring when he's all 'oh I know exactly what I'm doing all the time aren't I amazing' and doesn't show any other side but that.

The twist at the end was very good though, and helped me immensely when it came to drawing together the big picture. I don't have a head for putting together all the little pieces, and was a bit lost before the very last scenes hit. Oh, and the dwelling on the futility of love and fortune and the ridiculous things people are willing to do for them was nice.

Nonetheless, I was planning on reading all of these, but now I'm not so sure. I'll get to the other one on the 1001 list at least, and then we'll see. The fact that this edition was all marked up by some offended soul didn't help the reading at all, so I'm hoping the lack of this helps the next book.

A great golden oldie, copyright 1940. Chandler set the standard for noir novels with his great writing and ironic comments. Phillip Marlowe investigates a murder of a man he was bodyguarding. This leads straight to Matthew Scudder and Cork O'Connor as surely as Bill Haley leads straight to Elvis and Chuck Berry. Recommended to anyone who ever read a P.I. novel.

This was the second book that I have read by Chandler, and many (including the author himself) say it is the best. I think it was superior to The Big Sleep, although very much in the same vein. This is classic L.A. noir, full of corruption, cynicism, and at times, a rough beauty. I can see more in this one how he brought artistry to the suspense story – it was not really in his plots or characters, which are fairly standard or have become standard. It was more in his prose and the occasional smooth and riveting description. For example, there is a page long narration of a car ride thru a (fictional, I think) part of L.A. that really brings the place to life. The introduction fulminated over how close Chandler’s writing was to the LA of the early part of the 20th century, but I tend to disagree on that one. His stories could have been set anywhere and they would have been just as good, but he does deserve credit for capturing something that is long gone.

(SPOILER ALERT) Philip Marlowe is Chandler’s cynical, tough, solitary, principled private eye. Was he the the prototype? Probably it was Hammett’s guy, but Marlowe is more complex and therefore more interesting. Marlowe by chance runs into a dangerous thug named Moose Malloy who is looking for his ex-lover, a second-rate dancer/singer named Velma. Soon he finds himself in the thick of things: a man named Marriott hires him as back up in a supposed blackmail pay-off, and he is killed when Marlowe wanders off to check out the area. A nice, adventurous girl named Anne Riordan shows up and gets the hots for Marlowe. He cannot respond in kind though - his real love is booze, and he generally goes for more sleazy ladies, like Mrs. Helen Grail, the wife of a very wealthy man, who also hires him. Marlowe finds a joint with the name of a bogus psychic on a card inside it. When he goes to investigate, he is taken prisoner and pumped full of dope. He wakes up in a strange clinic run by a quack doctor and fights his way out. There are other issues and characters: a nasty old drunken woman (there is some pretty heavy boozing in this book) who may or may not know something vital, a smooth gangster named Laird Brunette who runs a gambling boat anchored outside the jurisdiction of the authorities, and the possible involvement of the corrupt Bay City police.

Ultimately, one of the characters turns out to be something different from what she appears. She is a classic noir femme fatale – beautiful, sexy, totally selfish and manipulative – your average guy's nightmare, and the story concludes around her. But like most good mysteries, what remains is not the plot but the atmosphere and feeling, and that is what Chandler is revered for.

Philip Marlowe is a combination many of my favorite crime busters. John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, and Jo Nesbø's, Harry Hole (to name a few).

Like Reacher, Harry, and Travis, Marlowe is also incredibly funny, smart and can take care of business with confidence when the situation warrants. Always get a huge kick out of how he handles his lady suitors, calling a spade a spade like nobody's business. He is never lured in with mindless flirtation, and listening to him use his witty dry humor to put people in their place is priceless.

Raymond Chandler a genius at his craft, and nothing I can say can describe how good his books are other than (if you have not already) read them, and enjoy.

3.5 stars

A very uneven successor to The Big Sleep, but truly brilliant in part. If I were to make a movie from a book, this would be The One.