The Second Murderer
The 1940s in a sweltering Los Angeles. The city is full of bottle-blonde femme fatales, actors who never made it, and men looking for a chance to pull a gun. Observing them all is world-weary Private Investigator Philip Marlowe, who takes another slug of whiskey and lights a cigarette. All very hard-boiled detective genre, all very Raymond Chandler. Only it isn’t. Denise Mina has become the first female writer to pay homage to Chandler, reimagining Marlowe. She has big (gum)shoes to step into and wears them well. Here, Marlowe is summoned by millionaire Chadwick Montgomery to find his daughter Chrissie. She’s vanished after her engagement to a rich but boring young man. Marlowe traces Chrissie to a hotel, but then there’s gunshots and a man’s body. Realising dark forces are at play, Marlowe wants to protect Chrissie. But can he, and should he? The story takes us to uptown art galleries and downtown gay bars. It features corrupt police, the millionaire’s battered blonde girlfriend and a rival PI. The PI is tempting redhead Anne Riordan, and sparks fly between her and Marlowe… “We’d either kiss or burst into flames.”
The story is full of Chandleresque pacey short sentences and enjoyable wisecracks: “I gargled mouthwash to hide the tang of whiskey and despair”, “I punched him and he went down like the Lusitania.” Marlowe solves the case, of course, although I had to suspend my disbelief at there being an all-woman detective agency at that time, and the love interest sub-plot had a bit of an abrupt turnabout. However, I’m sure this is not the last Marlowe story Mina will write, and roll on the next.
