The High Window

I first read Raymond Chandler when I recieved The High Window, The Lady In The Lake, Farewell, My Lovely and The Big Sleep, as Christmas gift's in 1965 when I was in High School. I went on to read all of Chandler's work and Dashiell Hammett's as well. I really enjoy the hard boiled detective style of fiction. I bought these novels as Christmas gifts for my Grandson seeing as how he is now in High School and hope he might enjoy them as much as I did.

Ive read this book many times. This performer brought some subtleties and nuances to the text that added greatly to my enjoyment, particularly in some of the characters voices, notably Lt Breeze. Well done, especially fun for long time Chandler fans who want to "hear" him again or in a way they hadn't imagined.

Anything Raymond Chandler wrote is worth reading and you'll probably be glad you did. All his stories take place in the 40's and 50's ,so they're from different time and place than today's fiction. A better place some may argue.

My rating is not meant to undervalue Raymond Chandler's writing. He is recognized by legitimate critics to be one of the greats of his era. I have no quarrel with that. But even though I lived during the end of his era and grew up watching film noir movies starring Bogart and Powell, I just couldn't get into this book. I kept thinking of Carol Burnett comedy routines spoofing old detective flicks. I rated the book a modest three stars because it provided me very little entertainment, and I read to be entertained.

I love Phillip Marlowe as a detective. Chandler's first-person writing style suits this no-nonsense early detective genre brilliantly. His wise cracks and observational humour grip the reader with almost breathless rapid-fire dialogue. And I would still rather read a great novel than watch a the current crop of super-hero movies for example, where CGI and no meaningful dialogue masquerade as riveting entertainment. If you are into crime fiction Raymond Chandler is a must-read. Trust me!

(Kindle version review) One of my favorite writers and collections, but this is a very poor format ebook. The OCR-related typos are very annoying - they aren't uniform, it's as though several pages, scattered through the book, weren't edited or checked at all.

I think that these stories varied a lot in quality and impact...would definitely be more likely to use "Weep No More, My Lovely" or my personal favorite "the Long Goodbye" to show someone who didn't know how awesome and descriptive Raymond Chandler's writing is. I love the title, though.

This is a series of books that my husband request for his birthday. I decided to get them for him and he loved them all. He read them as a boy and now as an adult he wants to read them again, I guess to try to capture his boyhood excitement. Great value.

The story is typical Chandler, aside from the debate about twelve(12) versus four(4) short stories.
Typical action,mystery and complicated, fascinating plot.

But Elliot Gould is no Ed Bishop as Philip Marlowe(the early BBC radio dramatization series), nor is he Toby Stephens -
the later BBC Philip Marlowe attempt. Gould can put you to sleep very easily performing Johnny Dalmas as the
L.A. private eye.

The story is typical Chandler, aside from the debate about twelve(12) versus four(4) short stories.
Typical action,mystery and complicated, fascinating plot.

But Elliot Gould is no Ed Bishop as Philip Marlowe(the early BBC radio dramatization series), nor is he Toby Stephens -
the later BBC Philip Marlowe attempt. Gould can put you to sleep very easily performing Johnny Dalmas as the
L.A. private eye.

With all I had ever heard about Phillip Marlowe mysteries, this book left me severely disappointed. The way the stories were written it was confusing in the way he moved from location to location, I often had to re-read sections to try to pick up the changes. This book certainly was not worth the discount price, so I know its not worth full price.

“The High Window” is the third full-length novel by Raymond Chandler (1888-1959). The title refers to the murder or suicide of a man who fell out of a window. In the novel, hard-nosed private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a cantankerous apparently wealthy widow to find a stolen coin worth in 1942 over $10,000, or hundreds of thousands of dollars in today’s money. The story involves three murders, gambling, counterfeiting, and blackmail.
Chandler is considered by many to be the founder of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction. He stressed the atmosphere of the events rather than the plot. His books show the corruption that existed in government and its police forces in the 1940s. His private detective Philip Marlowe is depicted as a romantic hero – a white knight who saves damsels in distress.
Critics differ in their views as to which Chandler novel is the best. I have so far read the first three of his books, and I think that he gets better and better with each novel. Thus, of the three, I like this one the best. He published seven novels during his lifetime. His eighth was completed and published by Robert B. Parker after his death. All of his novels, except his last one, were made into motion pictures, often more than once. There were two adaptations of this novel The first was made in 1942 and was called “Time to Kill.” It starred Lloyd Nolan as Michael Shayne, the name given to the private detective rather than Philip Marlowe. It lasts 61 minutes. The second film, made in 1947, starred George Montgomery as Philip Marlowe. The film lasts for 72 minutes. It has some of the snappy delightful dialogue that is in Chandler’s book.
The book, in short, is a classic with a fascinating story that is engrossing, a story that impacted not only readers but future writers who copied much of his style.

This volume contains four Raymond Chandler novellas, each about 60 pages in length, each about hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe, hard but with the heart of a knight errand, a man who felt his task (errand) is to rescue someone. In the title tale, “Trouble is My Business,” for example, he tries to help a woman who placed her clutches in and around a troubled young man who is securing a trust fund of millions of dollars.
“Trouble is My Business” was first published in 1939. In this paperback edition, Raymond Chandler offers readers an introduction which he wrote in 1950 where he reflects on writing pulp mysteries like his own. These stories, he tells, stressed the atmosphere of the events, times, and places, rather than the plot. “(T)he scene outranked the plot…. The ideal mystery was one you would read if the end was missing.” In the good hard-boiled story there is “some very determined individual (who) makes it his business to see that justice is done.
Marlowe in “Trouble” is hired to protect the troubled adopted son who owes $50,000 – a huge sum in 1939 – and stop a young beautiful woman from marrying the son who overindulges in alcohol. Three men are killed in the story, killings that do not make sense to Marlowe. Two thugs threaten Marlowe to stay away from the woman, and this also does not make sense.
The story is very good and the writing of it masterful.

Raymond Chandler was first published at the age of 44. His reputation as a game-changing crime writer rests on the seven novels he published between 1939 and 1958. This collection of four cases solved by PI Philip Marlowe was first published in 1950. They date back to 1934-1939 and were first published in “Black Mask” (here, Marlowe’s case 1 & 3) and “Dime Detective Magazine” (case 2 & 4).
‘Finger Man’ (case 2 here) was only his third published story, but it has all the hallmarks of the novels he wrote later. It is about corrupt politicians linked to organised crime and bent law enforcers in California; opportunistic damsels in distress with chivalrous, poor Philip Marlowe riding in to help, suffering lots of discomfort in the process. The inimitable atmosphere and language use are evident from page one.
This volume of 4 cases lacks the depth of character and possible gravitas contained in the books. Each is a string of dialogues, reflections, tense moments, violent scenes and killings. Marlowe often faces the muzzle of firearms, is sapped from behind or knocked unconscious and repeatedly finds his home invaded by a gunman or two, when turning in after a hard day’s or night’s work. These cases take several days to solve, not weeks or months, as in the novels.
Chandler’s first biographer Frank MacShane highlighted his talent or ability or habit to recycle material and scenes used in his low-brow magazine stories to a more literary level in his more sophisticated novels. So dear readers, much of what you find here are plot and style exercises (and much needed pot boilers) for the moment he felt confidence to start his novels. Great entertainment.

"The High Window" (1942) is the third of Raymond Chandler's novels featuring the detective Philip Marlowe. Marlowe tells the story in his own inimitable voice. The action of the story takes place over a three day period in 1941 in Los Angeles. Marlowe is faced with a confusing series of crimes including murder, counterfeiting, robbery, and blackmail.

The plotting is difficult and cumbersome in following the different crimes; but all is explained, perhaps too neatly, in the end. There is a lengthy denouement in which Marlowe explains to several of the characters of the book the parties who have committed the crimes and their motives. Marlowe shows great acuity and powers of observation in working through the tangled situation.

In "The High Window" more than in the earlier two Marlowe books, the plotting gets in the way. It detracts from what are otherwise outstanding features of the book in its writing, its descriptive passages of Los Angeles and its development of a host of mostly unsavory characters. The strongest part of the book is the characterization of Marlowe himself which becomes deeper than in the early novels. Late in the book, a friend of Marlowe's describes him as the "shop-soiled Galahad", a phrase which sums up much of Marlowe's activities and character

Marlowe is retained by a wealthy curmudgeonly widow, Elizabeth Murdock, to investigate what the widow believes is the theft of a rare early American coin, the Brasher Doubloon, by her daughter-in-law, who is estranged from her son. Besides the widow Murdock, her hapless son Leslie, who cannot hold a job and is heavily in debt from gambling and Merle, Mrs. Murdock's timid, shy secretary, play large roles in the story.

Marlowe does not get along with either Elizabeth or Leslie Murdock. Investigating the doubloon's disappearance leads Marlowe deep into other crimes, and the police even suspect him of holding back information on the murders which follow in the wake of the doubloon. The crimes require great perceptiveness to resolve. But the emphasis on the book is on Marlowe's character in remaining loyal to the Murdocks even though he dislikes them intensely for good reason. He keeps the family out of harm's way with the law. More important still is Marlowe's idealism and his desire to do the right thing. As the story develops, he learns how and why Merle's life has become emotionally stunted during her years working for Mrs. Murdock. He takes it upon himself to rescue her from a poisonous situation in a way that goes well beyond any duty he had undertaken to Mrs. Murdock as a private detective. Marlowe shows moral heroism while in the midst of a tarnished, often violent life of a private detective. Marlowe does his job, speaks brilliantly and poetically, is highly educated, and recognizes the characters of the people with whom he deals. There is a great deal of atmosphere in the book with nightclubbing, sultry singing, suits and hats and cars, cigarettes, pipes, and cigars, and alcohol. Marlowe also is a student of chess. With all the surroundings of 1940's life, some of which are highly appealingly portrayed, and a great deal of less than stellar behavior, Marlowe indeed emerges, more so than in the two earlier books, as a moral hero and as a "shop-soiled Galahad".

The tough, inspired portrayal of Marlowe with his idealism and loyalty in a world shown as fallen more than make up for the complications of the plot in this novel. In this and in his other Marlowe novels, Chandler created an iconic American character. The book is available individually or as part of the first of two Library of America volumes including the "Stories and Early Novels" of Raymond Chandler.

Robin Friedman.

I've read all of the Philip Marlowe novels / stories, and the one I always come back to when I'm in the mood for Raymond Chandler at his best is "Red Wind." It's a prime example of the man's craft...a couple of sentences in and you're sitting on a stool in some rat hole of a dive bar with the Santa Ana winds howling outside and Philip Marlowe sitting next to you. I'm not going to go into a deep or philosophical analysis of Chandler's work here...you can overdose on the wealth of that kind of writing with a couple of mouse clicks. Rather, I just want to say that Chandler should be a "go-to" author for the times you want to just "curl up with a good book." The characters are jaded, world-weary, "street smart," punch drunk...they'll all ring true with you. You won't feel like Chandler is "telling a story" in some cute or manipulative way. You'll feel like he's yanking you by the collar into some real-life brouhaha that's happening in the moment, live, all around you. He's the master. It's that simple.

Trouble is My Business

These four short stories were taken from the original book “The Simple Art of Murder”. They are about his fictional private detective Phillip Marlowe who is from Los Angeles. The “Continental Op” was a hard boiled gritty detective. Phillip Marlowe speaks in a witty manner that show the erudition of his author, and may explain his appeal in literary circle. Marlow drinks like a fish (to match the author?). The slang used has a short shelf life. You can decide if this is more realistic.

“Trouble Is My Business” tells of a job where Marlowe has to break up the romance between a wealthy heir and a showgirl. This ends in a tragedy for the powerful millionaire that hired Marlowe. (Why couldn’t Marlowe notice the tail when he went to visit the Questioned Document Examiner?) Does this story echo some Shakespearean tragedy?

“Finger Man” tells how a crooked politician tries to get even with Marlowe for his testimony. A man hires Marlowe to act as his bodyguard when he visits a gambling house. The man is found dead, his winnings wind up in Marlowe’s safe. This typical detective story ends with the guilty dead or in jail; except for the red head.

“Goldfish” tells how Marlowe is hired to recover stolen property. The company that insured the pearls offers a reward. The man with the lead is found dead. More difficulties follow. Another pair try to find the pearls. Marlowe finds the paroled thief. (If someone lives in an area, do they need a map to find a house?) The evil pair are neutralized, and Marlowe finds the hidden pearls.

“Red Wind” begins with Marlowe drinking a beer at a bar, watching another man drink rye. A stranger walks in for a drink. The rye drinker suddenly shoots him, and walks out the door. Now the mystery begins: strangers pop up, then disappear. Coincidences that are part of the story appear. The ending has an “O. Henry” touch. Illusions fall, and reveal a sad reality. [This is the most dramatic story in this book.]

Philip Marlowe is hired by Mrs. Murdock to find a rare coin, a Brasher Doubloon, and, she hopes to give grounds for a divorce for her son, from his wife of a year. She is a hardheaded women who very few could like.
In the first day or so, he finds time to talk with Mrs. Murdock's son, and another private eye hired to do something vague. The latter invites Mr. Marlowe to visit him at his apartment, and even gives Mr. Marlowe the key to it. Weird that he did that, but he really wanted to discuss with Mr. Marlowe his case. When Mr. Marlowe got there, he went in, poked around, and found the bloke dead in the tub!
He gets the police called, and thereupon is in bad graces because he is not fessing up about his current employment. Other things happen, and he finds the doubloon mailed to him. When he calls to talk with Mrs. Murdock, she tells him the doubloon has been returned as well. What is going on is the crux of the story. In the end someone gets away with murder, the truth of a blackmail is revealed as false, etc.
I am not sure this is such a good detective story because the murders are not solved absolutely, just sort of. In the sense that it is not necessary for all detectives to be able to solve every mystery, it is a change from the ordinary.

When I first started reading novels, I hated reading descriptions. They were long and boring. Just get to the dialogue! Then I read Thomas Hardy. His descriptions were so good it was like watching a movie--I could SEE what he wrote. Then I started reading Raymond Chandler. His descriptions were so good it was if I was there. When he described how hot it was, I would sweat. He wrote so well I didn't want to miss a word. There's a scene where the detective Philip Marlowe is in his high rise office and Raymond Chandler describes the noises from the street below and how still the air was, and the phone starts to ring. I get chills every time I read it.
Chandler did not believe in plots. There's a story that while filming The Big Sleep Humphrey Bogart asked who had killed the chauffeur and no one knew. They called Raymond Chandler, and he didn't know either. Chandler was once asked about plots and he said he just wrote and when he couldn't figure out where to go next, he would have a character pull out a gun.
People confuse Philip Marlowe with Sam Spade (Dashiell Hammett), mostly because Humphrey Bogart had portrayed both detectives, but the writing of the authors is dissimilar. Philip Marlowe is the original hard boiled detective, complete with a gat and sometimes a doll. Read this book. You won't be disappointed.