[Bookpossum]

I quite enjoyed revisiting Raymond Chandler after a few decades (though not as many as for Sherlock Holmes!).

I had forgotten the homophobia in the book, which was no doubt just a reflection of the way things were - and no doubt still are, but it wouldn't be as acceptable to write it that way now.

He certainly portrayed a nasty and corrupt society very well. And even though Marlowe was honest and decent, he felt contaminated by the evil. And of course he gave Vivian the chance to get Carmen away somewhere else, where she should have been locked up as criminally insane.

For me, the feeling at the end was one of melancholy.