Poodle Springs

infobox Book |
name = Poodle Springs
title_orig =
translator =


author = Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Philip Marlowe
genre = Crime fiction
publisher = G. P. Putnam's Sons
release_date = October 1989
media_type = Print (hardcover, 1989, and paperback, 1990)
pages = 290 (pb)
isbn = ISBN 0-425-12343-X (pb)
preceded_by = Playback
followed_by =

"Poodle Springs" is the eighth Philip Marlowe novel. It was started in 1958 by Raymond Chandler, who left it unfinished at his death in 1959. The four chapters he had completed, which bore the working title "The Poodle Springs Story", were subsequently published in "Raymond Chandler Speaking" (1962), a collection of letter excerpts and miscellaneous unpublished writings. On the occasion of the centenary of Chandler's birth, crime writer Robert B. Parker was asked by the Estate of Raymond Chandler to complete the novel. The result was adapted into a film by the premium cable channel HBO in 1998, starring James Caan as Marlowe.

Plot summary

The start of the book finds Marlowe married to Linda Loring, the rich daughter of local tycoon Harlan Potter. Loring and Marlowe had met in "The Long Goodbye" and begun a romance at the end of "Playback". From the beginning there are tensions, however, as Linda wants Marlowe to quit his job and get a decent position at one of her father's plant, which Marlowe refuses. The couple relocate to Poodle Springs (a mocking reference to Palm Springs), where they move into a grand mansion and Linda starts organising cocktail parties. Marlowe literally bumps into a local criminal named Lipschultz, who requests his services before Marlowe has even found office space in Poodle Springs.

Lipschultz operates an illegal gambling house just outside Poodle Springs jurisdiction in Riverside. He has taken an IOU for $100,000 from one of his customers, a Poodle Springs photographer called Les Valentine. Lipshultz' boss, a local tycoon, has found out that the sum is missing from the books and has issued a 30-day ultimatum to retrieve the money or else. Lipshultz asks Marlowe to retrieve Valentine, who is unreachable. Marlowe accepts the job, asserting that all he can do is locate Valentine, not shake him down. Marlowe leaves and questions Valentine's wife, Muffy Blackstone, a rich socialite and acquaintance of his own wife, who tells him Valentine is out on a photo shoot.

When Marlowe calls on Lipshultz again, he finds him killed in his casino office. From there, the trail leads to a double identity and a mastermind behind the scenes that is too close to home to be comfortable.

Contributions

Chandler's first four chapters of the story are used complete and unabridged for this edition. In these opening chapters, the Marlowes' arrival in Poodle Springs fresh from their honeymoon is described, the large bungalow they live in and Marlowe's insistence on independence. The principal characters of Philip Marlowe, Linda Loring and Manny Lipshultz, as well as several supporting characters, are introduced.

Parker has written the other chapters. It is not known whether he had any guidance from plot outlines or other notes by Chandler, or whether he conceived all of his plot developments by himself.

ource

* "Raymond Chandler Speaking", ed. by Dorothy Gardiner and Kathrine Sorley Walker. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962, 1997² (ISBN 0-520-20835-8).