God I love this Raymond Chandler paperback. Check out that amazing cover. I think I picked it up from a pile in my mother in law’s house (you can have it back if you want, Suzy!).
Great book too.
He leaned forward and smiled. “Maybe you’d like a face full of knuckles.”
I stared at him with my mouth open. “That one went by me too fast,” I said. “I never laid eyes on it.”… I put my hand out, hoping he wouldn’t pull it off and throw it in the lake. “You’re slipping your clutch,” I told him. “I didn’t come up here to inquire into your love life… What the hell’s the matter with you?”
“This do, Miss Keppel?”
“Mrs. But just call me Birdie. Everybody does. This is fine. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Marlowe. I see you come from Hollywood, that sinful city.” She put a firm brown hand out and I shook it. Clamping bobbie pins into fat blondes had given her a grip like a pair of iceman’s tongs.
I will admit that by the end I had somewhat lost track of the nuances of the crime and the plot… was really reading for the sentences, for the most part.
Ivan Kreilkamp 