Raymond Chandler

3 Stories

He Wasn't Known for Poems, but He Left Behind a Rare One

Novelist Raymond Chandler's 'Requiem' was penned after the loss of his wife from lung disease

(Newser) - Near the end of 1954, the wife of Raymond Chandler died after a long battle with lung disease. The famed crime novelist fell into near-suicidal depression from which he never recovered. He drank heavily and died just five years later, at age 70. Chandler completed no major books after the...

Report: Black Man Secretly Helped Great Crime Writers

Gumshoe Samuel Marlowe apparently wrote to Chandler, Hammett

(Newser) - Two great American crime novelists may have relied on a man unknown to history—a black detective in Los Angeles—to help them get their facts straight, the LA Times reports. Samuel Marlowe, said to be the city's first black gumshoe, worked for celebrities, studios, and speakeasies in the...

This Is Your Best Shot to Finish a Pynchon Novel
This Is Your Best Shot to Finish
a Pynchon Novel
book review

This Is Your Best Shot to Finish a Pynchon Novel

Author shifts gears, has fun with a stoner detective in the '60s

(Newser) - Thomas Pynchon's back with what appears to be his most accessible novel yet, in the unlikely category of detective fiction. Critics reviewing Inherent Vice say he pulled it off:
  • Laura Miller, Salon: It's "a sun-struck, pot-addled shaggy dog story that fuses the sulky skepticism of Raymond Chandler with the
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3 Stories