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A review by dreadpiratejenny
The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black
4.0
A LibraryThing early reviewer win.
John Banville writing as Benjamin Black writing as Raymond Chandler. Got it?
It's been a good twenty-five years since I read Chandler, but to my recollection, Black pretty much nailed it. And if you have only seen movies based on Chandler, well it's easy enough to hear the lines coming out of Bogie's mouth.
So you've got this guy, Nico Peterson, who's dead. Only maybe not really. Marlowe gets hired because Nico's girlfriend, Claire Cavendish, saw him in San Francisco. After he died. Claire is heir to a major perfume empire and moves in the type of high class circles that make Marlowe uncomfortable but that he seems to find himself tangled up with. Add his cop buddies/nemeses, a mob boss, and a club for the movers and shakers and it really feels like what I recall vintage Marlowe to be.
John Banville writing as Benjamin Black writing as Raymond Chandler. Got it?
It's been a good twenty-five years since I read Chandler, but to my recollection, Black pretty much nailed it. And if you have only seen movies based on Chandler, well it's easy enough to hear the lines coming out of Bogie's mouth.
So you've got this guy, Nico Peterson, who's dead. Only maybe not really. Marlowe gets hired because Nico's girlfriend, Claire Cavendish, saw him in San Francisco. After he died. Claire is heir to a major perfume empire and moves in the type of high class circles that make Marlowe uncomfortable but that he seems to find himself tangled up with. Add his cop buddies/nemeses, a mob boss, and a club for the movers and shakers and it really feels like what I recall vintage Marlowe to be.