Little Sister, The

Inhoud

The cornerstones of crime fiction are now so rare that the merest handful of collectors can ever hope to posess them in genuine first editions.
This new series of facsimile reprints provides an alternative for those who enjoy the look and feel of great old books. Produced to the highest standards, all books in this series will replicate exactly (except for a notice on the copyright page and on the back flap of the dusk jacket) the striking period look and craftsmanship of the true first edition.
These beautiful, historically accurate editions do full justice to books that have charmed, entertained, and influenced generations of readers. They will form the foundation of any serious reader's or collector's library.
Frequently cited as the greatest of all the Philip Marlowe novels, this facsimile is a precice replica of the rare 1949 English first edition, which actually preceded the American first edition by three months.

Bespreking

A masterpiece of detective fiction

From the moment when the 'Little Sister' appears in his office -pathetic, appealing but with something strangely phoney about her- private detective Philip Marlowe gets into a series of strange and increasingly violent happenings. Marlowe tries futilely to reunite a scattered family: a dead blackmailer, a rising movie star and a girl named Orfamay Quest. In sorting out the mystery, Marlowe gets involved with picture people, including a powerful agent, a half-senile studio head and the muscle the studios call out to deal with blackmailers. Some of them have ice picks sticking out of their necks. And of course, he has to take care of those corrupt small-town cops from Bay City.

From the first words of the Little Sister you immediately get into that typical film noir mood. The way Chandler describes the shabby office of Philip Marlowe gets you really going. You breathe and smell the decadence of the 1940's and know that you have to get ready for a rollercoaster ride through many intrigues. With the hand of the master Chandler weaves all the evidence into a complex web and keeps you on edge to find the solution. But be prepared, the plot is getting complex very fast and the denouement might come as a total surprise if you do not watch out very carefully. But then again, the real joy of the novel is not in trying to figure out who is who, and who did what, but in the way Chandler lets the mystery unfold.

By the time Raymond Chandler wrote The Little Sister, he had written several screenplays for Hollywood pictures. He did not earn that much money by writing books, so he needed the dough he was offered by the Tinseltown people. This does not mean that he enjoyed this very much. There is plenty of cynicism directed towards Hollywood. It seems as if The Little Sister is some kind of getting even with how Chandler was treated by the major film bosses.