This is the sequel to The Making of a Marchioness, which I read earlier this month. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett 3.5/5, and I plan to continue reading more of Chandler’s works. So yes, a fun story with a lot of twists and a fairly satisfying (if somewhat hurried) ending Marlowe’s voice is absolutely hilarious and, to me, an absolutely fascinating look and reminder of how in the not-so-distant past, having separate ‘joints’ for blacks and whites was not only normal, but considered completely unlikely to ever change. It was genuinely disturbing to see how no one really cared about the first murder in the story because the victim was ‘only a negro,’ and that the case was given to a man on the police force generally considered to not be important or skilled enough to deal with something ‘more worthwhile.’ In the end, when Marlowe mentions to the murderer that he may have been able to get away with killing ‘just a shade,’ he really won’t be able to get out of also killing a white woman.
This book is, as with the first, very reflective of the ingrained prejudices of its time, and the easily offended will probably not make it past the first page, where ‘negro’ appears three times, but I found the story to be all the more engaging because of its unvarnished view of its time – so much more interesting to read the books written then, where these words and concepts flow naturally because it was just the way it was, rather than books set during that time but written now, that frequently try too hard to belabor the point that there were prejudices. I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country.
While the story is fine, with a decent mystery and fair pacing, it’s Marlowe’s slang-ridden, dryly humorous observations that keep me turning the pages.Īfter a little while, I felt a little better, but very little. As with the first book, The Big Sleep, Marlowe’s narrative is what makes this book worth reading. This is the second book starring hard-bitten private detective Phillip Marlowe. The Aroma of Books //Rants//Raves//Reviews// Pargeter, Edith (also writing as Ellis Peters).Mertz, Barbara (also writing as Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels).Christie, Agatha (also writing as Mary Westmacott).Children’s History: Landmark, Signature Biographies, and We Were There.
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