Were the works of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler informed and inspired by a real-life African-American detective named Sam Marlowe? This Los Angeles Times story explores that intriguing possibility.
Tag: hard-boiled
Tempted by a “Kept Girl”
You know how when you’re in the middle of one book that you’re enjoying well enough, but then you buy another book dirt cheap for the Kindle, and you read one chapter of it, just to get a taste of it, and it makes you want to put aside the book you’re reading, but you’ve already done that once with this book and there’s no way you want to have to start all over with it again?
That happened to us.
The Kept Girl by Kim Cooper, an L.A. historian and author, is a mystery novel set in 1929, the protagonist of which is the mystery author Raymond Chandler, back before he was an author, when he was a young(ish) executive for an oil company. The book involves other historical figures and actual events and the first chapter was engaging enough to make us want to keep reading. But we’ll stick it out with the entertaining-in-its-own-right-but-still… Carter Beats the Devil, dang it, as much as we’re tempted to switch.
Hollywood to Pay Tribute to Raymond Chandler
One of Los Angeles’ greatest noir writers will be getting a permanent place in the sun: on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Raymond Chandler is one of 30 people who will get such stars in 2015… Full story here.
Oh, how we’d love to be on hand for that ceremony. It’s an honor that’s long overdue.
Speaking of Raymond Chandler, did you know what he had a Hitchcock-esque cameo in the 1944 noir classic Double Indemnity, a picture on which he served as co-screenwriter? Virtually no one did until a few years ago. But see for yourself—that’s him sitting and reading in a chair outside insurance investigator Edward G. Robinson‘s office.