The High Window (1943)

I read this one twice - probably not b/c I thought it was so great but b/c I forgot that I read it the 1st time. You call this a review?! Shd I make a bkshelf called something like "bks-I-read-when-I-was-sick" or "bks-that-I-unintentionally-read-twice"? ( )

Marlowe Coins More Hardboiled Phrases
Review of the Random House Audio audiobook (2021) narrated by Scott Brick of the original Alfred A. Knopf hardcover edition (1942)

After a moment I pushed my chair back and went over to the french windows. I opened the screens and stepped out on to the porch. The night was all around, soft and quiet. The white moonlight was cold and clear, like the justice we dream of but don't find. - excerpt from The High Window

Class is a thing that has a way of dissolving rapidly in alcohol. - excerpt from The High Window

Audible recently had another $5 Special Offer of one of the 2021 Raymond Chandler / Philip Marlowe audiobooks and I snapped it up immediately. The 2021 series has the great veteran audiobook narrator Scott Brick as its reader and he adopts the perfect cynical tone for the hardboiled detective. I had previously enjoyed Farewell, My Lovely (Philip Marlowe #2) (1940) from him as well. These share the spare cover art of the 1988 Vintage Crime / Black Lizard paperbacks, presumably due to a Random House publishing umbrella tie-in.

The High Window starts off with what seems like a simple straightforward case. Marlowe is hired to retrieve what is thought to be a stolen rare coin from the Murdock family collection. The chief suspect is the daughter-in-law of the officious widow Murdock, who is Marlowe's not very likeable client. The case quickly expands into murder, counterfeiting and blackmail though and Marlowe has to run the usual gauntlet of police suspicion, questionable femme fatales, criminal thugs and a damsel in distress before all is solved. The ending was actually rather sweet, which seems uncharacteristic for the cynical noir knight.

See photograph at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/1787_Brasher_Doubloon....
A photograph of a Brasher Doubloon (1787). In "The High Window", the value of a mint condition specimen is estimated at $10,000 dollars. In 2021, one of the same coins sold for $9.36 Million at auction. Image and background information sourced from Wikipedia

As expected, the narration by Scott Brick was excellent. Chapter intermissions were highlighted by the use of film noir-like jazz music to heighten the atmosphere.

Other Reviews
Not really a review, but author Lawrence Block wrote about the use of the Brasher Doubloon in The High Window for a numismatic magazine in 1964 and reproduces that article in this 2020 look back for Mystery Scene which can be read here.

Trivia and Links
The High Window has been adapted for film twice. First as Time to Kill (1942) dir. Herbert Leeds, with Philip Nolan in the lead role, whose character name was changed from Philip Marlowe to Michael Shayne to line up with a different series of detective films. The entire film can be seen on YouTube here.

The second film adaptation was as The Brasher Doubloon (1947) dir. John Brahm, with George Montgomery in the role of Philip Marlowe. The entire film can be seen on YouTube here.

The High Window is in the public domain in Canada and can be read online at Gutenberg Canada here. ( )

The High Window (1942) (Marlowe #3) by Raymond Chandler. Yet another superior outing from Chandler’s pen. This time Marlowe let’s himself be hired by a rich client looking to have something stolen from her returned. The thief might be the missing daughter-in-law in whom the client has serious issues. Before long murders and beatings, blackmail infidelity and other things along those lines start popping up. Ah, the complicated life of the rich. In his own way Mr. Chandler seems to be mocking the wealthy, pointing out their flaws and hidden skeletons.
Marlowe does what he has to do and works hard to sort the needle of truth in the stack of lies presented to him. This story isn’t as convoluted as others in the series, although there are still plenty of plot twists and double-dealing, but you should be able to navigate it all without getting lost. And as always there is the beautiful wordage that marked Chandler far above many others who wrote in the noir style. That is the reason he is still relevant 80 years onward. ( )

I have a soft spot for hard boiled detective novels, and Raymond Chandler is one of the best in the business. Here his familiar private eye, Phillip Marlowe, gets himself embroiled in a deliciously complicated LA story of a stolen coin, dead bodies, elderly elevator operators, brash older women, mousey nervous women, confident flinty sexbomb brunettes, confident sultry sexbomb blondes, drunks, saps, and nightclubs. Don't worry, it all comes together in the end. Chandler can describe anything perfectly -- landscapes, people, offices, cars -- and it makes you feel like you have stepped right into mid-century Los Angeles. And the one-liners. Oh goodness -- so good. If you like this kind of thing, you will love this one. Big thanks to my sweet friend Dave for the gift (that sat in my to read pile for way too long). ( )

1941 Marlowe is employed by wealthy Pasadena widow Mrs Elizabeth Bright Murdock to retrieve the stolen Brasher Doubloon. Stolen she is convined by daughter-in-law Linda Conquest. A female she despises. Unfortunately for Marlowe he keeps on finding dead bodies. Can he solve the cases to his satisfaction.
An enjoyable and well-written mystery. A re-read. ( )