Pun Salad

Almost done with my mini-project to reread Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels. Left is Poodle Springs, which Chandler did not finish before his death in 1959; Robert B. Parker completed it in 1989. But it still counts as Chandler in my book.

This one, Playback, is considered to be a lesser effort, based on Chandler's screenplay for a movie that never got made. I dug out my 1977 $1.50 paperback, and… I liked it fine! Probably the first time I've read it since 1977, so my memory of the plot was pretty hazy. Oh, heck, I'll admit it: it was nonexistent.

Marlowe is hired over the phone by a supercilious lawyer to track down and follow a lady on the lam, arriving by train in Los Angeles from the east. (On the "Super Chief"!) Details are provided in a visit from the lawyer's comely secretary. But the subject is easy to find ("as easy to spot as a kangaroo in a dinner jacket"). And Marlowe tails her down south to Esmeralda, a nice little seaside resort town.

Violating his client's explicit instructions, Marlowe makes himself known to the subject, and they eventually both find themselves in the usual hot water; Marlowe's not the only one interested in her; she's being blackmailed, and she's fleeing an unpleasant situation. Along the way, Marlowe encounters some very colorful characters.

Would have made a pretty decent movie, I think.