This note contains spoilers for the book.

I've mostly not liked Chandler much, but he's such a classic author I find I keep pecking at him. I think it was The Little Sister that I particularly hated; forgot I read it, picked it up again, and realized it was that bad novel I'd read once.

I've been reading a lot of stuff from that very general period—either set there, or written then—in the last few years. Rex Stout and Dorothy Sayers very much overlap Chandler. So does Doc Smith.

However, this one is pleasant enough so far. But like the other Chandlers I think I've read, it just doesn't seem to click. Philip Marlowe doesn't work for me as a character. He doesn't make sense, I don't sympathize with him particularly, and sometimes it gets near the eight deadly words.

This one has a reasonable enough convoluted mystery plot, with layers of changes on who we believe did what. It has one nice character, a woman that Philip keeps away from. It has a clear enough ending.