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1356313

The High Window

Annotation:
Marlowe's client, Mrs. Murdock, is a wealthy widow whose antique gold coin has been stolen. As the story unwinds, it's clear that Mrs. Murdock's actions belie her posh surroundings. Chandler draws on his characteristic conflict between the Haves (the clients) and the Have-Nots (Marlowe) in his exploration of greed, trust, love and power in a plot which bears some resemblance to "Gaslight".

Author Bio

Raymond Chandler

Chandler was raised by his mother after his father disappeared. At the age of 8, he moved to London, where he later attended Dulwich College and excelled in his studies. After graduating, Chandler traveled, returned to London for a civil service job, and left that job to become a writer. He moved to California, but served with the Canadian army during World War I. After being injured in the war, Chandler returned to California and became an executive with the Dabney Oil Syndicate and got married. He drank excessively and was fired from his job, but in 1933 he published his first story in the pulp magazine "Black Mask", and wrote fiction for the next 10 years. He then signed on with Paramount as a screenwriter. In 1946, after an enormously successful career in Hollywood, Chandler retired from the movies. His wife died in 1954, and Chandler sank into an alcoholic depression for the next five years. In 1959, he died of pneumonia, one month after being elected president of Mystery Writers of America. Along with Dashiell Hammett, Chandler is arguably the greatest mystery/detection writer of the 20th century. He, Hammett, and James M. Cain set the standard for the so-called "hard-boiled" or "noir" fiction, and strongly influenced Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald, and Robert B. Parker, among others. Chandler's detective, Philip Marlowe, was an updated variation on the questing knight of medieval legend, with a strong ethical code and a tortured, alienated soul.