The If there was a Mount Rushmore of crime fiction, Raymond Chandler's face would certainly be up there.

Along with Dachel Hammett, Chandler is one of the fathers of hardboiled detective fiction.

He gave us one of the genre's all-time great characters, Private Eye Philip Marlow, and he's responsible

for the title of this podcast, pulled from his classic essay, The Simple

Art of Murder.

My first exposure to Chandler's work came in the form of an old audio book from my library, a pair of

cassettes with an abridged adaptation of the high window narrated by Elliot Gould.

I was enthralled by the vivid descriptions, the travelogue journey through

Los Angeles that Philip Marlow took, and all the characters he encountered, good, bad, and

downright mean.

Chandler's dialogue practically defined the hard-boiled genre, so much so that newcomers to

Chandler may find his writing reads as cliche. It only reads that way because so many people who followed have imitated but never duplicated him.

You can hear some of that trademark chandler-esque dialogue on screen and double indemnity.

Chandler collaborated on the screenplay for that noir classic

with director Billy Wilder.

Chandler got his start writing short stories for the Pulps through the 1930s, but he's

best remembered for giving us Philip Marlow. Beginning with the Big Sleep in 1939, Chandler wrote seven novels starring the private detective,

and nearly all of them are classics, including The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and the long

goodbye. When he died, Farewell My Lovely, and the Long Goodbye.

When he died, Chandler left behind the first chapters of a new Marlow novel titled Poodle Springs,

a story that found the detective married and resisting the settled down life.

With the blessing of the Chandler estate, the late Robert B. Parker finished the manuscript

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