- Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (7 July 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140108963
- ISBN-13: 978-0140108965
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 40,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Little Sister: A Philip Marlowe Mystery
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Product Description
Review
'Anything Chandler writes about grips the mind from the first sentence' Daily Telegraph 'One of the greatest crime writers, who set the standards others still try to attain' Sunday Times 'Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence' - Ross Macdonald
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Her name is Orfamay Quest and she's come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or least ways that's what she tells PI Philip Marlowe, offering him a measly twenty bucks for the privilege. But Marlowe's feeling charitable - though it's not long before he wishes he wasn't so sweet. You see, Orrin's trail leads Marlowe to luscious movie starlets, uppity gangsters, suspicious cops and corpses with ice picks jammed in their necks. When trouble comes calling, sometimes it's best to pretend to be out...
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First Sentence
The pebbled glass door panel is lettered in flaked black paint: 'Philip Marlowe. . . Investigations'. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The pebbled glass door panel is lettered in flaked black paint: 'Philip Marlowe. . . Investigations'. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
THE LITTLE SISTER is terrific mystery that concludes with a gruesome incident of sudden (albeit implausible) poetic justice. By my count, TLS has five murders and a suicide, with Philip Marlowe a step too slow to prevent any crime but way ahead of the cops (and this reader) as he identifies the perps and unravels their interlaced motives.
There are lots of standard Raymond Chandler elements in TLS, including gangsters, devious deadly dames, and a film-noir Los Angeles. But in contrast to other Chandler novels I've read, there seems to be even less effort to elucidate the sour integrity of the lonely Marlowe. Since this is the fifth novel in the series, Chandler probably felt such explication would add little to, and might actually detract from, his spare and disciplined style. On the other hand, Chandler tells us more about the movie business in TLS and his dialogue is never better. Among my marginalia is: "Conversation as combat."
In TLS, it's the cops that bring out the best in Ray. When they're on the page, Chandler's wonderful metaphors seem sharpest, his skillful screen writer's dialogue carries the most freight, and his rhetoric absolutely soars. Here's Chandler letting loose, as Lieutenant Christy French berates Marlowe:
"It's like this with us, baby. We're coppers and everybody hates our guts. And as if we didn't have enough trouble, we have to have you. As if we didn't get pushed around enough by the guys in the corner offices, the City Hall gang, the day chief, the night chief, the Chamber of Commerce, His Honor the Mayor. ...We spend our lives turning over dirty underwear and sniffing rotten teeth. We go up dark stairways to get a gun punk with a skinful of hop and sometimes we don't get all the way up, and our wives wait dinner that night and all the other nights. We don't come home anymore. And nights we do come home, we come home so [expletive] tired, we can't eat or sleep or even read the lies the papers print about us. So we lie awake at night in a cheap house on a cheap street..."
Highly recommended.
There are lots of standard Raymond Chandler elements in TLS, including gangsters, devious deadly dames, and a film-noir Los Angeles. But in contrast to other Chandler novels I've read, there seems to be even less effort to elucidate the sour integrity of the lonely Marlowe. Since this is the fifth novel in the series, Chandler probably felt such explication would add little to, and might actually detract from, his spare and disciplined style. On the other hand, Chandler tells us more about the movie business in TLS and his dialogue is never better. Among my marginalia is: "Conversation as combat."
In TLS, it's the cops that bring out the best in Ray. When they're on the page, Chandler's wonderful metaphors seem sharpest, his skillful screen writer's dialogue carries the most freight, and his rhetoric absolutely soars. Here's Chandler letting loose, as Lieutenant Christy French berates Marlowe:
"It's like this with us, baby. We're coppers and everybody hates our guts. And as if we didn't have enough trouble, we have to have you. As if we didn't get pushed around enough by the guys in the corner offices, the City Hall gang, the day chief, the night chief, the Chamber of Commerce, His Honor the Mayor. ...We spend our lives turning over dirty underwear and sniffing rotten teeth. We go up dark stairways to get a gun punk with a skinful of hop and sometimes we don't get all the way up, and our wives wait dinner that night and all the other nights. We don't come home anymore. And nights we do come home, we come home so [expletive] tired, we can't eat or sleep or even read the lies the papers print about us. So we lie awake at night in a cheap house on a cheap street..."
Highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sleazy, dark, corrupt, fascinating, amoral and that's just Dolores Gonzales! Chandler hits top form again as he features a Hollywood 'reeking with sex', beyond all moral laws, in another bewildering plot ostensibly about little Orfamay's missing big brother.
Now aged 38, Marlowe feels 'jaded and old' from a lifetime of 'knocking on doors of cheap hotels that nobody bothered to open'. He still manages to be the undisputed California wisecrack champion; 'I'll make the gags, you tell the story'.
Chandler has a cynical attitude to the post-war world and how it has changed America. He loathes, 'California, the department store state. The most of everything and the best of nothing'. He despises the impact on Los Angeles 'once the Athens of America' now 'a neon-lighted slum'.
Thankfully, the homophobia of his earlier novels is toned down whilst Marlowe's relationship with the LAPD is back on an ambiguous path.
I was delighted that the Marlowe/Chandler imposters who masqueraded in 'The Lady in The Lake' were replaced by the real thing.
My only reservation is that I agree with Marlowe that the plot was, 'too complicated' and 'my head was dizzy with figuring it out'. What a shame that I may have to read it all again! I shall be forced to revisit the sizzling Mavis Weld and the 'as exclusive as a mailbox' Dolores.
Now aged 38, Marlowe feels 'jaded and old' from a lifetime of 'knocking on doors of cheap hotels that nobody bothered to open'. He still manages to be the undisputed California wisecrack champion; 'I'll make the gags, you tell the story'.
Chandler has a cynical attitude to the post-war world and how it has changed America. He loathes, 'California, the department store state. The most of everything and the best of nothing'. He despises the impact on Los Angeles 'once the Athens of America' now 'a neon-lighted slum'.
Thankfully, the homophobia of his earlier novels is toned down whilst Marlowe's relationship with the LAPD is back on an ambiguous path.
I was delighted that the Marlowe/Chandler imposters who masqueraded in 'The Lady in The Lake' were replaced by the real thing.
My only reservation is that I agree with Marlowe that the plot was, 'too complicated' and 'my head was dizzy with figuring it out'. What a shame that I may have to read it all again! I shall be forced to revisit the sizzling Mavis Weld and the 'as exclusive as a mailbox' Dolores.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Having only got around to reading the novels after many years of watching the films, these books are an absolute treat. The words and thoughts on the page just have more impact than when they are spoken. I found myself re-reading sentences over and over.
The language is just brilliant and I can only think of Elmore Leonard who is even in the same class when it comes to crime fiction. Despite being set 50+ years ago they seem very contemporary and not all all past their time.
I would recommend all this series and to read them in order.
The language is just brilliant and I can only think of Elmore Leonard who is even in the same class when it comes to crime fiction. Despite being set 50+ years ago they seem very contemporary and not all all past their time.
I would recommend all this series and to read them in order.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Classic Marlowe
"I hung up. It was a step in the right direction, but it didn't go far enough. I ought to have locked the door and hid under the desk. Read more
Published 10 months ago by M. D. Jenkins
the little sister
I dont believe Raymond Chandler ever wrote a bad book.
I read all his stuff as a teenager and Ive just about finished re reading it all. Read more
I read all his stuff as a teenager and Ive just about finished re reading it all. Read more
Published 14 months ago by francophile
classic Marlowe
As a Marlowe afficionado, whilst this is not my favourite, it has one of the twistier plots of all the novels & is replete with all the great one-liners you would expect from our... Read more
Published 21 months ago by A Nitric Man
Classic Chandler
I picked up this book with a heavy heart. I'd read all of Chandler's books except this one. I dearly wish there were a hundred more :o(
It was a good read with all the... Read more
It was a good read with all the... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Snowman
Be careful of that knock on the door...
This is classic Marlowe. Perhaps one of the lesser works. It has everything thrown in except the kitchen sink - and even that makes an appearance! Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2009 by Noir Fan
Anniversary Edition
On the 50th anniversary of the death of Raymond Chandler five of his novels have been re-released with the original artwork on the covers from the first UK edition. Read more
Published on 10 July 2009 by M. Dowden
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