THE LADY IN THE LAKE, by Raymond Chandler

I happened to see that THE LADY IN THE LAKE by Raymond Chandler was on sale on Kindle, so I picked it up.

It’s one of Chandler’s novels featuring private detective Philip Marlowe, and it’s really good. In the book, Marlowe gets hired to find the vanished wife of a rich man, and in the process, he stumbles across a poor man whose wife has also disappeared. In the course of his investigation, he stumbles across a web of lies and corruption, and if he’s not careful, that web is going to eat him as well.

It was a well-constructed mystery book in its own right, but I also enjoyed reading it because of its influence on the Dresden Files, which I enjoyed greatly. Philip Marlowe is a lot like Harry Dresden, albeit with no magic and less of a pushover with women (some of the women in THE LADY IN THE LAKE would have rolled right over poor Harry).

Definitely recommended!

-JM