Reviews

Noir fiction at its best. The first-person narrative of Marlowe is the big draw for me in reading Chandler. And, Chandler is no ordinary writer. He's a superb writer of dialogue, description, and story. A real artist of the written word.

"From thirty feet away, she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away, she looked like something made up to be seen thirty feet away."

brakian's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

ericarikan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

ian_curran's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

ladymantis35's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

iteechesinglish's review against another edition

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mysterious

4.0

This one started slow. It didn't have the same level of intrigue or engaging characters as "The Big Sleep" and "Farewell, My Lovely." But it picked up by the end and I enjoyed the mystery aspect of it more than those two previous novels.

thebeardedpoet's review against another edition

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3.0

While Chandler's sentences and dialogue are consistently brilliant, the plot in this installment was slow and often seemed aimless. Most of the scenes read as scenes for their own sake, although eventually in the last quarter seemingly random incidences started to coalesce. I just didn't enjoy the pace and the murkiness this time.

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