Raymond Chandler is probably the one genre writer I can't get enough of -- there's hardly anyone who writes as hot and stylish as he does. The dialogue, the descriptions... I can't even read them without grinning to myself. Rigorous without being stingy.

All that said... he is not a master of plot. I've read somewhere that Chandler didn't outline his stories, which struck me as insane for a mystery writer. How could you be sure all the threads would work out? Well, the answer is, you can't, and they don't. Look too closely at these plots and they fall apart, but who cares? It's really not about whodunit. ( )