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Title: Poodle Springs by Robert B. Parker, Elliott Gould ISBN: 1-59007-106-9 Publisher: New Millennium Audio Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 3 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.44 (16 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Parker does Chandler proud
Comment: Chandler died in 1959 leaving behind the opening chapters of this Philip Marlowe PI novel which Parker has completed. Here, Marlowe has a rich wife (shades of Hammett's Nick & Nora Charles) and has moved from L.A. to the big-buck community of Poodle Springs, where he is hired by the area crime boss to track down a missing local who has run out on a gambling debt. The plot evolves with murder, blackmail, and a little bigamy for good measure. Though there's more talk than action and Marlowe's usual hard edges are rounded off a bit, there is still deep intrigue and lots of snappy dialogue. Completing a story started by another is difficult, especially when it involves an estalished character, but Parker has done an impressive and admirable job in adapting to Chandler's style and sense of humor. All one can say when reading this novel is, "Marlowe, it's good to have you back."--Michael Rogers
Rating: 3
Summary: extremely tentative recommendation
Comment: My apologies in advance, but this is an "on the one hand/on the other hand" review. On the one hand, for anyone who loves Raymond Chandler and Philip Marlowe, as I do, it is great to have a new story featuring the "Galahad of the Gutter", even if Chandler only wrote the first three chapters. And Robert B. Parker ( of Spenser fame) does a competent job of completing the story.
On the other hand, despite the exception of Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man, I think that the modern trend of giving private eyes buddies and girlfriends has been a catastrophic development for the hard boiled novel. The very essence of these novels, epitomized in The Maltese Falcon, Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer series and the other Philip Marlowe stories, is the independence and accompanying vulnerability of the detectives. So this Marlowe story, which finds him married to a wealthy heiress and comfortably ensconced in Poodle Springs (a thinly veiled Pal Springs), is disappointing evidence that even a master of the genre was drifting in this direction when he died.
The mystery here is vintage Chandler, with blackmail, pornography, polygamy and the like and when the focus turns to Marlowe working on the case it is quite good. But the scenes between him and his wife, particularly the tensions between them as a result of his insistence on a return to detecting, bring the story to a screeching halt every time it builds up a head of steam.
The result is a very mixed bag and an extremely tentative recommendation--an airplane book.
GRADE: C
Rating: 5
Summary: Best Book Ever Written!
Comment: Well, there's not too much to say about Poodle Springs without giving it away, but these two authors are a dinamic duo, to say the least! Poodle Springs was the best book I've ever read in my entire life. I loved the story so much that I couldn't put it down. I read all 400 something pages in one night! Take that Harry Potter!
If you like suspence thrillers with just the right about of 50's mystery stories, complete with melodramatic love stories and dialog-over-action, then you'll love Poodle Springs. I definetly recomend it. Go out and buy one. Please.
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Title: Perchance to Dream by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425131319 Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 December, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Love and Glory by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0440146291 Publisher: Dell Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 March, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Wilderness by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0440193281 Publisher: Dell Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 May, 1987 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Paper Doll by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425141551 Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: All Our Yesterdays by ROBERT PARKER ISBN: 0440221463 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 01 December, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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