Raymond Chandler: A Mysterious Something in the Light: A Life [Hardcover]

'This biography is the best all-round portrayal of the troubled California writer'

'Despite the belligerence and arrogance detailed in this book, Williams writes with a cool, detached hand, allowing many previously unseen letters to speak for themselves... a lucid and taut examination of the first "hard boiled" writer to turn populist pulp writing into a more erudite art form'

'Tom William is the third and best biographer of Chandler... his packed, insightful, entertaining biography will, I feel, be the last on Chandler ... a difficult and lonely man who led a dissatisfied and disappointed life'

'Williams does not flinch from describing his subject's faults but he lets his enthusiasm for the books shine through ... he knows the value of letting Chandler speak for himself'

'Outstanding... Williams writes sensitively about the Cissy relationship, and delves illuminatingly into the composition of Chandler's masterpieces... But he also commands a broader sweep, detailing the real-life criminal conspiracies and financial scams that lay behind Chandler's depiction of 1920s oil-boom Los Angeles as a pit of corruption... thanks to this biography Chandler himself is a less mysterious something than he was'

'Williams's biography reminds us that as a man Chandler was a psychological mess, but as a writer he remains an enchanter'

'The most comprehensive biography of Chandler written to date'

'Tom William's biography helps us to understand a complicated and dislikeable man'

‘Absorbing... Chandler was a man in need of a friend - and in his biographer he finds one... There's so much here that's interesting and poignant... The end of his story is sad beyond words'

'Tom Williams creates a portrait of an author as mysterious and troubled as any fictional character, and provides a fascinating new insight into a rare and exacting genius, in this impressive piece of literary detective work'

'Williams' book paints an intriguing portrait of a man in fragments'

'We are used nowadays to fictional detectives who can rarely win, because the crimes they investigate are only a small part of an evil system they can't completely fathom. This is Marlow's recurring plight. He was a pioneer sufferer from the paranoia about power and corruption that we all now live with. Thanks to this biography we know much more than we did before about the talented but unhappy man who created him'

'Chandler's life was tattered and unwieldy, filled with rage and frustration: his only consolation lay in filtering it all through his typewriter, so that it was transformed into his wry and magical prose... This new biography ... is a good starting point for those who can't resist a peek past the glittering stage-set of an author's work to the tawdry mess that so often lies beyond'

'Succeeds in making a serious case for Chandler as an important, or at least an aspirant, modern... Williams is absolutely on the money'

'A thoroughly enjoyable read which blends Chandler's life with history, keeping it lively and entertaining'

'A thorough exploration of the writer who defined modern crime fiction'

'Precise, kindly and necessary'

'The most comprehensive biography of Chandler written to date'

'Excellent'

'Smashing... Certainly, by the end, its subject was completely smashed'

'Strongly researched and highly readable'

'A lovely biography written by an enthusiast for the fiction with sympathy for the life, without being misty-eyed’

TOM WILLIAMS was born in Newcastle in 1981 and was educated at University College London. He now lives in Kentish Town and works in publishing. A Mysterious Something in the Light is his first book.