Reviews
Chandler's rendition of romance is usually more conservative than Parker's, who made this novel's romantic moments rather cheesy/steamy and out-of-character at some points. That aside, it was a very impressive effort at finishing what he had started and was not able to complete. The reviews on the cover claim the subtlety of the seam, and they are by and large correct. Chandler's style is characteristic but slippery, and Parker manages to convey and sustain the atmosphere one has sad nostalgia for after finishing the rest of the Marlowe series. His attempt at something this difficult was very brave and strikingly accurate. Where the familiar sparkle begins to fail (the writing for the first few chapters seems more floppy than usual) it was Chandler who seemed to be losing his touch (with the premise? with Marlowe's nearly-frantically blunt attempts to save his dignity and not be a 'kept' husband?), and Parker who mounts a restorative attempt to the old stories one remembers too well with his take on clever comebacks. Regrettably, this novel was lacking in those memorable quiet intermittent times where Marlowe (over a sorry meal, or with a cup of coffee or alcohol of his choice) does a running commentary on the vacuous windows of city dwellings and the lonely people in it, filling up with conversation where these parts would've been, but that's a minor point compared to what Parker has actually achieved.
