Philip Marlowe marries a rich, beautiful society lady who wants him to settledown. But old habits die hard, and Marlowe soon is back in business, enmeshedin a case involving pornography, bigamy, and murder. 2 cassettes.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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From Publishers Weekly
When Chandler ( The Big Sleep ) died in 1959, he left only the first four chapters of L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe's seventh caper. Parker earns high marks for picking up the story from the slim opener and writing a thriller to rival his bestsellers on Spenser, Boston PI. Here Marlowe is newly wed to wealthy Linda and at home in her luxurious house in Poodle Springs (pseudonym for Palm Springs), but refuses to be a kept man. Hired by a local gambler to trace Les Valentine, a photographer who has welshed on a $100,000 bet, the detective questions the missing man's bibulous wife Muffy, daughter of a multi-millionaire. Muffy's vague answers give nothing away, so Marlowe drives back to L.A.'s grubby streets, looking for information. Acting on a tip, he visits the office of "Larry Victor," and finds it vacant except for the body of a blonde model. Marlowe knows Larry is Les and suspects he was framed for murder, probably by the gambler's mob bosses, so the investigator stays on the case in the city at the risk of his life and marriage. Sustaining tensions, writing in tune with the period and delivering a knockout finale, Parker does nobly by the great Chandler. 200,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; Mystery Guild main selection; Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Chandler died in 1959, leaving behind the opening chapters of this Philip Marlowe private investigator novel set in the 1950s, which Parker has completed. Here, Marlowe has a rich wife (shades of Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles) and has moved from Los Angeles to the big-buck community of Poodle Springs, where he is hired by the area crime boss to track down a missing local who has run out on a gambling debt. The plot evolves with murder, blackmail, and a little bigamy for good measure. Though there's more talk than action, and Marlowe's usual hard edges are rounded off a bit, there is still deep intrigue and lots of snappy dialogue. Completing a story started by another is difficult, especially when it involves an estalished character, but Parker has done an impressive job in adapting to Chandler's style and sense of humor. All one can say when reading this is, "Marlowe, it's good to have you back." Literary Guild alternate; Doubleday Book Club featured alternate; Mystery Guild main selection.
- Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Hardcover
Poodle Springs is a Philip Marlowe mystery that starts with four chapters Raymond Chandler wrote before his death in 1959. Thirty years later Robert B. Parker finishes the work left by Chandler. Parker is an accomplished mystery author himself and breathes life back into Philip Marlowe so we can follow one more case.
Yet Parker is not Chandler and there are places in the book where I kept feeling that he wasn't getting Marlowe just right. Probably I was looking for these non-Chandleresque moments and they are actually intriguing. Marlowe fans can read the book with this additional level of interest: did Parker capture the essence of Philip Marlowe in this scene or not?
All that aside this is a well-paced and entertaining mystery. There is a side plot as the book opens right after Marlowe's marriage to an heiress. The tension is between the independent and honest detective and his pampered wife who can't understand each other. He gets along better with her house boy, and she can't understand why he won't sit back and let her daddy take care of them.
The main plot is pure Marlowe with a sleazy pornographer/blackmailer leading a double life and mixed up in a murder. Marlowe keeps discovering bodies which puts him in trouble with the cops. Yet he can't quite figure out who is the murderer until it is almost too late.
If you haven't read Raymond Chandler this is not the place to start. Although this is a minor addition to the Marlowe corpus, it will be a welcome addition to those who have read the other works and desire more Marlowe. It reads quickly and never lets you down.
By Paul Skinner
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Robert B. Parker does an admirable job of capturing Marlowe's character, in this somewhat dissappointing (as expected) attempt to bring him back to life. Marlowe is married to a millionaire in a desert oasis, yet feels compelled to continue to eek out his own nickel, playing the hard boiled detective in LA by day. Predictably, the marriage is put under stress as Marlowe's job makes it difficult to get home for dinner. The mystery is a little strange. Marlowe immerses himself into a pair of murders, going beyond the instructions of his client. In the end, the murderer goes out in a way that I found difficult to believe. Nice try, but there will never be another Chandler.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Raymond Chandler's death in 1959 left the beginnings of this novel; thirty years later it was finished by Robert B. Parker. It does not seem to match Chandler's earlier work. Perhaps because it echoes these and other stories?
Some anachronisms jarred my reading. I can believe Linda driving a Fleetwood convertible in 1959 or 1969, but they were long obsolete by 1989. While scandals from nude photos were believable then, the weekly magazines and newspapers have inured us since the 1970s. Unless it involved an elected official, and maybe not even then. Marlowe seems to drive around without ever getting caught in traffic, too. Is LA like that? At 42, does his attitudes reflect other baby boomers? The story involves a gambling establishment outside the city limits. Would either the FBI or Calif pass up a chance to raid it since the 1960s? Wouldn't a casino in Nevada be more likely? The sun-drenched streets of pre-war Los Angeles ("the best trolley system in the country") have been long replaced by the smog and gloom of Big Oil's Freeways. "Roger Rabbit" treated this as background for a cartoon.
The square miles of land around LA were worthless because there was no trolley system there. Destroying the trolley system put people into cars. Now these distant lands became commercially valuable. Newspaper owners benefitted when they were developed. Even bigger forces were at work to bring in Government contracts, and factories from out or state. The northeast was drained to irrigate southern California. And all perfectly legal!
The ending is different from "The Big Sleep", and it seems more cynical to wrap it up with a 'deus ex machina' ending. TBS let the guilty walk because they were rich and powerful, and doesn't it still happen that way? Not just in LA? A better ending would find the suicided Larry Victor with a typed but unsigned confession, and the widow Valentine hospitalized for a nervous breakdown.
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3.5 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
A fast, easy read
I found this pleasant enough, enjoyable enough. I read it easily in a couple of readings. And I did enjoy it, but it didn't grab hold of me like Raymond Chandler's stories. Read more
Published on July 2 2002 by Neal C. Reynolds
3.0 out of 5 stars
Philip Spenser, please stand up.
Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker, Poodle Springs (Putnam, 1989)
Raymond Chandler died leaving the first four chapters of a new Philip Marlowe novel. Read more
Published on April 23 2002 by Robert P. Beveridge
4.0 out of 5 stars
he knew the job was tough when he took it...
The heirs of Raymond Chandler, one of the most imitated writers of all time, approached Parker, an obvious disciple of the master, to finish an incomplete manuscript the deceased... Read more
Published on Dec 27 2000
2.0 out of 5 stars
Marlowe Becomes Spenser
After reading this book, I had to re-read the editorial hype in disbelief. Anyone who can't tell where Chandler left off and Parker took over is blind. Read more
Published on Dec 22 2000
3.0 out of 5 stars
extremely tentative recommendation
My apologies in advance, but this is an "on the one hand/on the other hand" review. On the one hand, for anyone who loves Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe, as I do,... Read more
Published on Nov 22 2000 by Orrin C. Judd
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good on its own merit
This is Parker's book, as first four chapters, credited to Chandler, are a very small part of it. Thus this book can be evaluated on several tiers: (1) Is it a seamless... Read more
Published on Aug 1 2000 by Daniel J. Connelly
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Your Usual Philip Marlowe Mystery -- Interesting!
This is a novel mostly written by Robert Parker, drawing on four chapters started by Raymond Chandler at the end of his life. Read more
Published on May 28 2000 by Donald Mitchell
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Book to Avoid
Even if you're not a Raymond Chandler fan this is a book to avoid. The plot is childish, derivative, and tedious, one that you're seen or read a million times before, and the... Read more
Published on April 18 2000 by Hayford Peirce
1.0 out of 5 stars
Chandler would be what?
The decision by Chandler to wed Marlowe was better left unwritten, and, I feel, represented the loneliness and increasing malaise that he experienced late in his life. Read more
Published on Nov 21 1998 by ndamien@mailexcite.com
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chandler would be proud.
After years of reading and watching Spenser, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth in Marlowe by Robert Parker. Read more
Published on April 21 1997
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