It's Flashback Friday at Best Crime Thriller Books

$14.12 at Barnes & Noble

Welcome to the first installment of "Flashback Friday" where each week we will be showcasing a great crime thriller from the past.

Unless you're a diehard fan of Raymond Chandler, and/or Robert B. Parker, you may have never heard of Poodle Springs, Chandler's seventh and last Philip Marlowe novel. I've been a fan of both for years and even then had never heard of the book until I stumbled across it quite by accident one Saturday afternoon while browsing the stacks at the Flagstaff, Arizona Barnes & Noble. If you've not heard it, there is an interesting story behind the book, especially the Robert B. Parker connection.

When Chandler died in 1959, he left behind the first four chapters of Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe's seventh caper. The book had the working title, The Poodle Springs Story. It wasn't until 1988, on the occasion of the centenary of Chandler's birth, that Robert B. Parker was asked by the estate of Raymond Chandler to complete the novel.

Parker did an exceptional job picking up the story from the slim opener and writing a thriller to rival his own bestselling Spenser novels. Poodle Springs reads just like any of Chandler's great Marlowe novels which shows just how much influence Chandler had on Parker's writing style.

In Poodle Springs, Marlowe is newly wed to wealthy Linda and at home in her luxurious house in Poodle Springs (pseudonym for Palm Springs) but refuses to be a kept man. He opens up a private eye shop in Poodle Springs on the second floor above a gas station. He is hired by a local gambler to trace Les Valentine, a photographer who has welshed on a $100,000 bet.

Marlowe questions the missing man's bibulous wife Muffy, daughter of a multi-millionaire. Muffy's vague answers give nothing away. Marlowe is compelled to drive back to Los Angeles's grubby streets, looking for information.

Acting on a tip, Marlowe visits the office of a man named Larry Victor,' and finds it vacant except for the dead body of a blonde model. Marlowe deduces that Larry Victor is actually Les Valentine and suspects Valentine was framed for the murder, probably by the gambler's mob bosses. Marlowe stays on the case in the city at the risk of not only his own life but his new marriage too. Sustaining tensions, writing in tune with the period and delivering a knockout finale, Parker does nobly by the great Chandler.

If you enjoy those wonderful "hard-boiled" detective novels of days gone by, you'll want to pick up a copy of Poodle Springs by Raymond Chandler and RobertB. Parker.