Books like The Little Sister

Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe , they are an iconic pair you cannot separate or wish to, the master writer and the fictional character more real than some bipeds. The flavor of Los Angeles in the 1940's you could almost taste, and bringing Hollywood into the mixture soaks the atmosphere in tinsel, cheap it may be yet L.A. wouldn't be the same without the glamour and the vulgar. Add a murder mystery and Chandler who knew the business that built the city, he worked in the studio system ( as a screenwriter) and disliked greatly. A young apparently innocent looking girl from Manhattan, Kansas Orfamay Quest has a job for Mr. Marlowe find her missing older brother Orrin involved in an illicit trade. Miss Quest is not what she appears to be, pretending runs in the family and she is the best one of them. Philip doesn't locate big brother in his seedy apartment but discovers dead bodies everywhere he looks and the Los Angeles police are not happy far from it, Lieutenant Christy French and partner Fred Beifus, they give the detective a rough reception at their downtown headquarters, ( the Bay City boys also hate him and participate in the festivities ) Orrin works for a criminal doctor Lagardie after losing his legitimate work in Bay City ( Santa Monica). The Hollywood actress and rising movie star Mavis Weld is the sister of both Orrin and Orfamay a very good friend of a gangster Steegrave trying to go strait but having difficulties, she is being blackmailed. Her studio has high hopes for her and will do anything to shield their investment. She is ambitious, has become corrupt in the system like many others and shows contempt for Marlowe which the gumshoe doesn't mind he likes the view . Minor star Dolores Gonzales also is in the plot and likes Mr. Marlowe a lot, she wants to protect Marvis, still the sleaze permeates all, the artificial climate takes a toll. Chandler gives this novel another jolt of entertainment, with a hard-boiled detective as only he could create, the words flow cynically, the killings abound yet this is his world which the writer knew intimately, drugs, prostitution, failures of the discarded actors that the film industry wishes to hide , however he lived in the muck and we benefit from his experiences.The fans will enjoy this and mystery aficionados too, there was only one Raymond Chandler and the public is grateful...