While I was at my in-laws over Christmas, I picked up Trouble is My Business, a collection of four short Philip Marlowe stories by my favorite detective novelist, Raymond Chandler.
If you haven’t read Chandler, he writes very economically, kind of the Anti-Tolkien. Where Tolkien might include the names of a landmark in three languages as well as its history and etymology, Chandler gives you just enough to get a picture in your head and then moves on.
That’s not to say he has no sense of style with his words; while he didn’t invent the hard-boiled detective story, he does a brilliant one, complete with the kind of metaphors you find in Tracer Bullet comics.
The book was excellent for the most part. It contained the stories Trouble is My Business, Finger Man, Goldfish, and Red Wind, and the stories go in order from worst to best.
I only use the word ‘worst’ because while I really like Chandler’s stripped down writing style, Trouble is My Business kind of abuses the privilege. Still good, just not great like the other three.
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