I began this Philip Marlowe novel with unease, having recently tried The Big Sleep and finding it hard-boiled to the point of unpalatability. I had an entirely different reaction here: Lady is a later work, and perhaps Marlowe/Chandler had become more nuanced by the time of its writing.
Whatever the case, this tale of two missing wives and one found drowned corpse was, for me, wonderful reading and generated a great discussion at our Classics book group. Written and set in 1943, I found the war, superficially of little importance to the story, to be a crucial off-stage character. While the novel's wealthy socialites, brutal police and sundry low-lifes are romping in a SoCal dreamworld, people are dying daily by the thousands across the oceans. I kept wondering about the male characters: why weren't they fighting? were they ashamed? Of course, I know that every male couldn't possibly have gone overseas, but the war's progress cast a sort of jaundiced glow on all the men in the story. Terrific, edgy dialogue and gorgeous physical descriptions round out an almost perfect detective story.
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