Raymond Chandler is no longer around to write new stories starring his archetypal private detective, Philip Marlowe. So here Benjamin Black steps up to the plate with a mystery meant to follow on from Marlowe’s 1953 novel The Long Goodbye. Does it work? Our reviewer Raven found the writing authentic and the storyline intriguing. Yes, Marlowe falls for a dame who isn’t all she appears to be, and in a hot and steamy LA summer he sets out to find Clare Cavendish’s former lover Nico Peterson. When Peterson’s gangster contacts get heavy with Marlowe, he tries another angle and is soon uncovering secrets about a rich gentlemen’s club.
“Raymond Chandler would be more than happy with the result. I certainly was,” concluded Raven in her review.
