{Farewell My Lovely} ruined Christie and all the "meet me in the parlor and I'll divulge the murder" authors for me. After that I had to read all of Chandler (not a difficult task).

The problem with Chandler is that things just happen and Marlowe just manages events as crimes get solved around him because he is tenacious not clever.

I bought a copy of Poodle Springs. It was the first chapters of the Marlowe novel that Chandler was working on when he died and finished by the guy who writes the "Spenser" stuff. It stunk. You could tell when Mr. adjective and wierd simile stopped writing it. Even without the change in style there was plot and character issues I couldn't deal with. It was definitely a book you can't pick up.

"When I split an infinitive, it stays split." -- Raymond Chandler