In una Los Angeles anni ’40 l’investigatore privato Philip Marlowe si trova casualmente presente sulla scena del crimine. They make a date to meet again at the club of a local hoodlum, Laird Brunette, near the spot where Marriott was killed. Steve: Well, let’s see… Maybe the first book I read where a certain shadowy deportment really popped as a pure statement of style was Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. Here are two examples: "The moist air was cold as the ashes of a dead love" and "the voice became as cold as a canteen meal. Marlowe will have to travels through the unsavory, with corruption everywhere he goes, mostly in the nearby small town of Bay City, ( Santa Monica).

Farewell My Lovely is perhaps my favourite of all Raymond Chandler's books, although he was not a prolific author and there aren't too many to choose from.

And that scene where he picks up a stray pink bug in a police office, wraps it in his handkerchief and releases it outside speaks volumes. He manages to get hold of a photo that's signed "Always yours, Velma Valento" and takes it with him. In the opening episode of the television series Bored to Death, the character Jonathan Ames, played by Jason Schwartzman, is inspired to become a private detective after reading the book.

It is always good to follow these stories of the hard drinking detective and this is a fairly good story.

Eight years is a long time, and in the interim, the bar, which used to be a white establishment, has now become an African-American one, although in 1940, no one would have described the place quite that politely. Marlowe meets Malloy one hot day in Hollywood and, out of the generosity of his jaded heart, agrees to help. Finally, there are the passages that aren’t just clever quips or snappy dialogue, but that convey a real sense of emotion. Chandler takes you behind the bright lights in a tale of precious jewels, fading starlets, blackmail and murder, deadly poisons, dirty secrets hidden at the bottom of bourbon bottles, opulence and decadence in a dark place, illicit drugs and desperation.

If Marlowe doesn't wrap this one up fast, he's going to end up in jail - or worse, in a box in the ground .Di mezzo, però, c’è la scomparsa dell’affascinante Vilma e lei è bianca e di questo sì che vale la pena occuparsi. If possible the plot/story-line of Farewell, My Lovely is even more convoluted than its predecessor, The Big Sleep.