Having read and loved all of Chandler's Marlowe novels, I came to this one timidly, thinking no one would be able to capture Marlowe and his time. I know of Parker's reputation with his Spenser novels, but I haven't read them. That will change after reading "Poodle Springs". The story was good, and Parker came fairly close with most of the dialogue. The only thing that really got on my nerves was the way Marlowe talked to his wife. I could understand what Parker was trying to do, but I just thought it stupid. It may have not been so disrupting if it had been once or twice, but it just went on and on. Drove me nuts. Other than that, it was nice to have another Marlowe story. There were a few quotes that tickled me as well.

"He rummaged the cheap Scotch out of the drawer and poured some into a couple of paper cups. I had a swallow. It tasted like something you'd take for mange."

"Hollywood Boulevard looked like it always did in the morning, like a hooker with her make-up off."

Chapter 11 was probably the best dialogue of the novel, with Marlowe interacting with the guests at his wife's party.

Marlowe being married just didn't work, and was totally unnecessary and distracting. ( )

Arguably, Chandler's Philip Marlowe stories were about masculine wish fulfillment, but at least the earlier novels had some literary flourish and Chandler evoked a decaying, corrupt society. That dissipated as the novels progressed, and Parker just reverts to pure male wish fulfillment--the hero is cool, solves the mystery, maintains his stoic demeanor in the face of all of those naked lady pictures. Parker lifts quite a bit from Big Sleep (in terms of the mystery's resolution) and the Long Goodbye (in terms of the hero's weird devotion to a man accused of murder). ( )

In The Life of Raymond Chandler, Frank MacShane wrote that Chandler "had begun to regret marrying Marlowe off and wanted to convert the 'Poodle Springs' piece into a short story and then start a new Marlowe novel." The fact that Chandler preferred, near the end of his life, to write "The Pencil" (the first Marlowe short story in two decades) while leaving Poodle Springs unfinished is a clear indication that he had little confidence in the piece. The notoriously bland four chapters he did manage to write confirm his lack of enthusiasm for the premise. So, right off the bat, Spenser author Robert B. Parker was not working with top-notch material when the Chandler estate enlisted him to complete the novel. Given its meager beginnings, Poodle Springs could never have been a great book...but for what it is, it's not bad.

Marlowe is indeed out of his element in Palm ("Poodle") Springs, still attracted to Linda Loring but intensely uncomfortable with her gaudy displays of wealth, and with the notion (cherished by Linda) that he should stop being a PI and just settle down. A racketeer hires him to locate a man who hasn't paid off a gambling debt; as usual, Marlowe finds himself caught in an unpleasant and occasionally violent crossfire between criminals and resentful cops. The villain's identity becomes fairly obvious early on, so you won't fall out of your chair when it's finally revealed. Still, Parker takes you for an enjoyable ride, convincingly emulating Chandler's prose and ensuring that Marlowe remains the not-so-secretly sentimental figure created by Chandler. The only wrong note is struck in the dialogue: too often, characters omit subject pronouns (e.g., "Saw him yesterday" instead of "I saw him yesterday"), which doesn't sound like Chandler at all. Realistically, though, it's not the sort of thing that will even faintly disturb most readers.

On the whole, I was pleasantly surprised. Worth a look for Chandler fans. ( )

Advanced reading copy as new

First edition as new