Poodle Springs

Poodle Springs is the eighth Philip Marlowe novel. It was started in 1958 by Raymond Chandler, who left it unfinished at his death in 1959. The four chapters he had completed, which bore the working title "The Poodle Springs Story", were subsequently published in Raymond Chandler Speaking (1962), a collection of letter excerpts and miscellaneous unpublished writings. On the occasion of the centenary of Chandler's birth, crime writer Robert B. Par... more

Poodle Springs is the eighth Philip Marlowe novel. It was started in 1958 by Raymond Chandler, who left it unfinished at his death in 1959. The four chapters he had completed, which bore the working title "The Poodle Springs Story", were subsequently published in Raymond Chandler Speaking (1962), a collection of letter excerpts and miscellaneous unpublished writings. On the occasion of the centenary of Chandler's birth, crime writer Robert B. Parker was asked by the Estate of Raymond Chandler to complete the novel. The result was adapted into a mystery film by the premium cable channel HBO in 1998, starring James Caan as Marlowe. The start of the book finds Marlowe married to Linda Loring, the rich daughter of local tycoon Harlan Potter. Loring and Marlowe had met in The Long Goodbye and begun a romance at the end of Playback. From the beginning there are tensions, however, as Linda wants Marlowe to quit his job and get a decent position at one of her father's plants, which Marlowe... less