SOMEWHERE RAYMOND CHANDLER IS SMILING . . . I LOVED THIS BOOK. IT WAS LIKE HAVING AN OLD FRIEND, ONE YOU ASSUMED WAS DEAD, WALK INTO THE ROOM.--Stephen King It was one of those summer Tuesday afternoons when you begin to wonder if the earth has stopped revolving. So begins a new novel featuring Philip Marlowe--yes, that Philip Marlowe. Channeling Raymond Chandler, Benjamin Black has brought Marlowe back to life for a new adventure on the mean streets of Bay City, California. It is the early 1950s, Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. Then a new client is shown in: blond, beautiful, and expensively dressed, she wants Marlowe to find her former lover. Almost immediately, Marlowe discovers that the man's disappearance is merely the first in a series of bewildering events, and soon he is tangling with one of Bay City's richest--and most ruthless--families. Only Benjamin Black, a modern master of the genre, could write a new Philip Marlowe novel that has all the panache and charm of the originals while delivering a story that is as sharp and fresh as today's best crime fiction.