The results are Chandleresque, sure, but you can see Banville’s sense of fun. “It’s vintage L.A., toots: The hot summer, rain on the asphalt, the woman with the lipstick, cigarette ash and alienation, V8 coupes, tough guys, snub-nosed pistols, the ice melting in the bourbon.

Soon he is tangling with one of Bay City's richest and most ruthless families-and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune. Almost immediately, Marlowe discovers that the man's disappearance is merely the first in a series of bewildering events. Then a new client is shown in: blond, beautiful, and expensively dressed, she wants Marlowe to find her former lover.

Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and the private eye business is a little slow. ' The streets of Bay City, California, in the early 1950s are as mean as they get. It was like having an old friend, one you assumed was dead, walk into the room.' -Stephen King ' It was one of those Tuesday afternoons in summer when you wonder if the earth has stopped revolving. 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.Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe returns in The Black-Eyed Blonde -also published as Marlowe as by John Banville-the basis for the major motion picture starring Liam Neeson as the iconic detective. Marlowe sets off on his search, but almost immediately discovers that Peterson's disappearance is merely the first in a series of bewildering events. 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. It is the early 1950s, Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. T he 23rd novel by the Irish writer John Banville feels like a literary equivalent of Winston Churchill's description of Russia as 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma'.

Channeling Raymond Chandler, Benjamin Black has brought Marlowe back to life for a new adventure on the mean streets of Bay City, California. 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. The telephone on my desk had the look of something that knows it's being watched.

Raymond Chandler's incomparable private eye is back, pulled by a seductive young heiress into the most difficult and dangerous case of his career'It was one of those summer Tuesday afternoons when you begin to wonder if the earth has stopped revolving.

The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black