57. The Lady In the Lake

by Raymond Chandler (222 pgs)

Raymond Chandler is somewhat famous for his novel The Big Sleep which was later turned into a movie with Humphrey Bogart. I found this a little slow getting into it but it's intricacies eventually drew me in. A woman disappears, another is found dead in a lake, soon a man is shot in his bath tub and the police are breathing down the enigmatic Private investigator Philip Marlow's neck. It's fun and suspenseful. I liked The Big Sleep better but that's nothing to be ashamed of.