The Lady in the Lake - Raymond Chandler

 

In my continuing saga of Chandler/Marlowe books, we come to the next episode, this time a missing wife who ran away, but didn't do quite what she said and in the process, her disappearance coincided with another woman's murder and that, of course, leads to much more murder'n'mayhem.

There are innumerable cases of mistaken identity along the way as well as people pretending to be someone other than themselves, which makes the tale even more confusing than usual. There are lots of coincidences, plenty of people opening themselves up when they didn't have to (but it sure helped to solve the case!) and, of course, Marlowe just beaten up a few times and even jailed at one point, for no particular reason.

There's a bit of suspension of disbelief needed at times, but still enjoyable and, again, Chandler has a good style and a fun way with words, and I always dig hearing about my old home, Hollywood.