The Long Goodbye (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (edit title)

• Rated 3 stars

“I'd never read anything by Chandler. I'd read another one...if only for the reminders of a "simpler" time.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Phillip Marlowe investigates murder in upper class Valley home while dealing with his guilt from unknowingly abetting a murderer. All comes together in the climax of this detective novel ”

• Rated 0 stars

“masterpiece among chandler's works.”

• Rated 5 stars

“I enjoy this last Chandler story the best. It wears its heart on its sleeve, but where else would you rather have it?”

• Rated 5 stars

“Mystery solved. We know why Chandler writes good American. He went to the same English school that PG Wodehouse did.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Like the pulp fiction portrayal of California in the 50s. ”

• Rated 0 stars

“Again, Marlowe gets involved by helping a friend. This time, among the wealthy of Los Angeles, who have even less honor and scruples than the poor and criminal. This is one of the most famous of Chandler's novels and incorporates the mix of sex, crime, duplicity, and murder Marlowe always seems to find on the shadowy folds of society. A good starter for Chandler, if you've never read any of his novels. It is long, however, so hang in there. Worth every minute.”

• Rated 4 stars

“There's probably not much to be said that hasn't already. Though part of me couldn't shake the image of Steve Martin shaving his tongue in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, this was a wonderful noir crime story. I haven't read much (if any) crime, but I can't imagine it getting better than this. Chandler has perfected a uniquely melodramatic delivery that can't help but seem gritty and real. I confess I was 2/3 through and thought the crime was solved...yet was riveted through to the final sentence.

Thing: on page 250, Chandler references The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer (one of my ancestors). A drunken Roger Wade says to Marlowe: "Ever read The Golden Bough? No, too long for you. Shorter version though. Ought to read it. Proves our sexual habits are pure conventions like—wearing a black tie with a dinner jacket...."”

• Rated 3 stars

“Again a book that was given to me by a Seattle mystery reader. She knows that I like old movies - and this is the old gumshoe Humphrey Bogart style of detective. I read it to the end. It surprised me at the end, of course. The detective had plenty of wise cracks which were funny. I have to admit, however, that I got a bit tired of it.....oh well. ”