The Long Goodbye
By Raymond Chandler
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, Paperback, 9780394757681, August 1988, 384pp.
The Short of It:
An amusing read.
The Rest of It:
Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he’s divorced and re-married and who ends up dead. and now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe. ~ From Indiebound
The Long Goodbye is my book club’s selection for this month and it was a nice change of pace. We don’t read much crime fiction and I’ve never read anything by Chandler before so I was pretty excited to finally give him a go.
After just a few chapters, I could tell that it would be a book that I’d enjoy. It’s a good read full of wry humor and the story is not bad either. There are a few twists and although The Long Goodbye is one of many books in the Philip Marlowe series, I never felt as if I was missing any background on the character.
I enjoyed the Los Angeles setting and Marlowe’s sharp-witted humor. Plus, as far as crime-fiction goes, I appreciated the simple story line and the lack of red herrings. It still had me guessing, but without all the fanfare that you get in some other crime-fiction novels.
It was pure fun and I will not hesitate to pick up another book in the series.
Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.
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