Level 2: Lady in the Lake (Pearson English Graded Readers)

Great yarn and characters who are believable. Plenty that is ugly, but not everything is ugly. Add to that a picture of LA during the war. Definitely worth a read.

5-Stars! Great pacing, wonderful progression of events and clues, just enough snappy dialogue, some detective-as-philosopher quotations, genuine tension and suspense, a sprinkling of red herrings... This is the whole enchilada! Awesome!This is by far the best of the Marlowe series so far. It's confident and well-paced, with terrific prose rhythm throughout. (I will soon read The Long Goodbye)I brushed my hair and looked at the grey in it. There was getting to be plenty of grey in it. The face under the hair had a sick look. I didn’t like the face at all. I went back to the desk .... I sat very still and listened to the evening grow quiet outside the open windows. And very slowly I grew quiet with it.I particularly enjoy how the clues fit together slowly, progressively throughout. You can see the connections, or think you can *winks* and by the end, it's mostly all there for you. I correctly pieced together 4-5 aspects of the plot, but MISSED the very clever big twist! Awesome!It was a •38 Smith and Wesson on a •44 frame, a wicked weapon with a kick like a •45 and a much greater effective range.I drove on through the piled masses of granite and down through the meadows of coarse grass where cows grazed. The same gaudy slacks and short shorts and peasant handkerchiefs as yesterday, the same light breeze and golden sun and clear blue sky, the same smell of pine needles, the same cool softness of a mountain summer. But yesterday was a hundred years ago, something crystallized in time, like a fly in amber.Notes and Quotes:The upper part of his face meant business. The lower part was just saying good-bye.12.0% .... it's amazing how modern much of the slang is here. Soap opera, beef, hunk, etc22.0% ....Behind the right-hand lower corner of the windshield there was a white card printed in block capitals. It read: VOTERS, ATTENTION! KEEP JIM PATTON CONSTABLE. HE IS TOO OLD TO GO TO WORK25.0% ...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.49.0% .... very good pacing and prose here. A nice rhythm even during the description of rooms, people and clothing. The snappy dialogue is well-balanced. It's the best Marlowe so far imho.59.0% ... quintessential Chandler ...I brushed my hair and looked at the grey in it. There was getting to be plenty of grey in it. The face under the hair had a sick look. I didn’t like the face at all. I went back to the desk .... I sat very still and listened to the evening grow quiet outside the open windows. And very slowly I grew quiet with it.63.0% ... this is the kind of detective story I enjoy the most, where the clues come in and slowly fit together, piece by piece throughout the book, building the big picture. There is an info-dump at the end, but it's well-presented.72.0% ... this is fabulously good stuff.

If you're looking for noir, it doesn't get any better. If you're looking for noir, it doesn't get any better.

I am working my way through the top 100 books of all time. This I on the list. The overview said that it has set the genre of investigative murder books. It has - good, wise cracking PI who gets his man. Excellent read

Chandler always delivers. This novel, featuring Chandler's main detective, Philip Marlowe, is full of the kind of twists and turns, full-throttle dialogue, and gritty ambiance you expect from Chandler. Written as current-day, the novel reads now to us in the 21st as historical fiction. The fifties are long gone for most of the world, so this novel, like all Chandler's work, offers a glimpse of times-gone-bye. Trigger warnings: the times were significantly more racist, the politicians and police significantly more corrupt, and Chandler tells it like it was. I remember. I was there. This is a great book really.