The Black Eyed Blonde
The Black Eyed Blonde
by Benjamin Black.
Filmed as Marlowe (2022), directed by Neil
Jordan.
Published by Picador.
First published 2014.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 144723670X
ISBN-13: 978-1447236702
Description:
A Philip Marlowe novel.
Raymond Chandler’s incomparable private eye is
back, pulled by a seductive young heiress into the most difficult and dangerous
case of his career.
by Benjamin Black.
First published 2014.
Paperback.
ISBN-13: 978-1447236702
“It was one of those summer Tuesday afternoons
when you begin to wonder if the earth has stopped revolving. The telephone on
my desk had the look of something that knows it’s being watched. Traffic
trickled by in the street below, and there were a few pedestrians, too, men in
hats going nowhere.”
So begins The Black-Eyed Blonde, a new novel
featuring Philip Marlowe – yes, that Philip Marlowe. Channeling Raymond
Chandler, Benjamin Black has brought Marlowe back to life for a new adventure
on the mean streets of Bay City, California. It is the early 1950s, Marlowe is
as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. Then a new
client is shown in: young, beautiful, and expensively dressed, she wants
Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson. Marlowe sets off
on his search, but almost immediately discovers that Peterson’s disappearance
is merely the first in a series of bewildering events. Soon he is tangling with
one of Bay City’s richest families and developing a singular appreciation for
how far they will go to protect their fortune.
Only Benjamin Black, a modern master of the
genre, could write a new Philip Marlowe novel that has all the panache and
charm of the originals while delivering a story that is as sharp and fresh as
today’s best crime fiction.
“Somewhere Raymond Chandler is smiling,
because this is a beautifully rendered hard-boiled novel that echoes Chandler’s
melancholy at perfect pitch. The story is great, but what amazed me is how John
Banville caught the cumulative effect Chandler’s prose had on readers. It’s
hard to quatify, but it’s also what separated the Marlowe novels from the
general run of noir (which included some damn fine novelists, like David Goodis
and Jim Thompson). The sadness runs deep. I loved this book. It was like having
an old friend, one you assumed was dead, walk into the room. Kind of like Terry
Lennox, hiding behind those drapes.” – Stephen King.