Raymond Chandler [1888–1959]
The Long Goodbye [1954]
From Wikipedia:
The novel opens outside a club called The Dancers (well known from Chandler's The Little Sister). We are in late October or early November 1949. Marlowe, whom we presumably know from previous novels, meets a drunk named Terry Lennox, a man with scars on one side of his face. They forge an uneasy friendship over the next few months. Everything changes when Lennox shows up late one night (in June 1950) at Marlowe's place, asking for a ride to the Tijuana airport.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lon...ye_%28novel%29