I've read most of Raymond Chandler's novels. He has a way of describing his surroundings that I find unmatched by any other writer I've read, from the drapes on the windows down to the pattern on the carpet. I don't have to use my imagination to fill in the gaps. That's good or bad depending on your point of view. I like it. Now, these short stories. They were both refreshing and nostalgic at the same time. Coming into them after the novels, I quickly realized that Raymond Chandler was an author who gleefully plagiarized himself! There are elements of most of these stories in his novels, plot lines from two or more stories combined into a novel, characters who are the same but different, places that are familiar. I could be specific, but I think you'll have more fun figuring it out for yourself. If you haven't read the novels yet, read this first. If you have, it will be like getting together with an old friend and reminiscing. ( )

No fan of detective stories here, yet oddly I seemed always eager to start the next one in this collection. As Chandler eventually recognized, his longer works are better. If you haven't read one of those, then try "The Big Sleep" or "The Simple Art of Murder". Good stories those and quite respectable literature, and fun to read. ( )

A very interesting journey, watching Chandler's prose develop from his very first story (so chockablock with twists that the formula was painfully obvious) to his last (short) date with Marlowe in "The Pencil." I enjoyed this, especially when he stuck with what he knew: gritty, hardboiled crime/noir. He has 3 main detective characters: Philip Marlowe, Ted Carmady, and John Dalmas. They each have their own distinctive personalities and styles, so much so that I was surprised to see that the stories he based [book:The Big Sleep|2052] and [book:The Long Goodbye|2054] on were not Marlowe originals, but rather featured Carmady. Same with the titular "The Lady in the Lake," originally starring Dalmas. I'm curious now to read the novels and see what differences pop up between the original shorts and the longer versions.

Chandler's wanderings weren't all high notes for me. He plays fast and loose with paranormal/supernatural in "The Bronze Door" and "Professor Bingo's Snuff," both of which were not that great, IMO. The comedy of "Pearls are a Nuisance" fell completely flat for me, and "English Summer: A Gothic Romance" lays on the goth with a thick-bladed trowel. To me, he's at his best in the world of California-set crime noir, a world he made his own right from the start. ( )

Will mess with your mind

Right off the bat, let me make clear that this is a beautifully bound and printed collection, that it's a bargain at Amazon's discounted price, and that these stories do exhibit Chandler's famously skillful writing style. In a couple of the stories in this collection, Chandler seems to be trying to write a Twilight Zone script, and in another he seems to be imitating P.G. Wodehouse, but in all of the rest he's true to form.

There is an important sense, however, in which this collection will be a mixed blessing to you if you've read and appreciated Chandler's novels. In a remarkable number of instances, the stories mix-and-match the plot lines from the novels. To be chronologically-correct, I should say that it's the other way around, I guess. In any case, it is disorienting to read Episodes X, Y, and Z from Novels A, B, and C all occurring in the same story. It's like having Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield team up to get Oliver Twist out of a jam. If you like to remember the things you read, you should be aware that the stories are likely to confuse your memories of the novels.

What's remarkable about Chandler is how even the same episode transplanted into a different story comes across interesting and fresh the second time around. ( )

Every story a gem. ( )