Pun Salad

Raymond Chandler's fifth Philip Marlowe novel, published in 1949.

It's a slack period for Marlowe's detective business, so mostly out of boredom he takes the case of Orfamay Quest, a seemingly innocent Kansas lady, in town to track down her brother Orrin, who has ceased communicating with his family back in the sleepy town of Manhattan. She gives him all she can afford, twenty dollars. (Neatly folded, three fives and five ones.)

It doesn't take long for a couple corpses to show up, both done in with an icepick to the occipital. Things get very twisty and convoluted, involving Hollywood starlets and the movie biz. Which Marlowe describes with his usual keen eye for the sordidness behind the glamorous tinsel. He also manages to survive a doped cigarette, several deadly dames, sleazy hotel detectives, and other threats.

I think Marlowe's wisecracks and colorful observations have ramped up a bit here, compared to previous entries. A sample, where Marlowe visits the scene of a past crime:

The Chateau Bercy was old but made over. It had the sort of lobby that asks for plush and india-rubber plants, but gets glass brick, cornice lighting, three-cornered glass tables, and a general air of having been redecorated by a parolee from a nut hatch. Its color scheme was bile green, linseed-poultice brown, sidewalk gray and monkey-bottom blue. It was as restful as a split lip.

Odd coincidence: I'm currently reading a recent novel, U Up?, where glass bricks also make an appearance. Coincidence or homage?

Further fun fact: Hotshot lawyer Lee Farrell (previously mentioned in Farewell, My Lovely) shows up to extract Marlowe from a tight spot with the cops. "Lee Farrell" is also the name of a recurring cop character in Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels, and I believe that's a homage, not a coincidece.

I originally bought my copy back in the early 1970s, a 95¢ Ballantine paperback (pictured). I don't think there's ever been a better cover, but the one on the Wikipedia page is also very good.