The High Window by Raymond Chandler

 

It's always a pleasure to read a Chandler that's new to me, and this was new to me. It has all of Chandler's typical strengths--atmosphere, dialogue, crystal prose--and is the first one of his novels I've read that didn't seem obviously like two stories pasted together. There's still some murk in the plotting, of course; and the amount of alcohol some of the characters consume seems to make it implausible for them to function anything like as well as they do. Some of the casual racism (and other cruelties) in here will be upsetting to modern readers, but it does go a long way in the direction of showing the crassness of some of the characters (arguably including Marlowe). I'm still wanting to read more Chandler.