The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler (1950)

A collection of Raymond Chandler's non-Marlowe detective mysteries.

Mystery Review: The Simple Art of Murder is highlighted by an introductory essay that sounds like a fussy uncle trying to justify hard-boiled detective fiction by decrying how contrived and lacking in personality are some traditional mysteries. He makes some valid points, but without landing a punch on the cozy mystery. Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) wrote 25 short stories, which fall into three groups. First, there are the Philip Marlowe stories, four of which are currently collected in Trouble is My Business and one that isn't. Then there are the eight stories he "cannibalized" for his novels, which he chose not to republish (being first collected in Killer In the Rain (1964)). Finally, there are the rest of the stories, twelve in all. Four consist of two "odd" mysteries, a Gothic Romance, and his first published story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot" (1933), which seemingly should have been included in this collection. The eight other stories, all hard-boiled mysteries, are collected in The Simple Art of Murder. In these eight pieces Chandler seemed to be trying out various ideas for a series detective, though he was probably just trying to sell stories. Oddly, only one is written in the first-person narration that Chandler later adopted for his best known creation. He creates a Latino police detective who gets suspended; a hotel detective with a brother in the mob; a fired hotel detective; a wealthy dilettante known to "talk the way Jane Austen writes"; a gambling undercover man; John Dalmas, a private detective who appeared in another story was later renamed Philip Marlowe; Ted Carmady who also popped up in another story and was later renamed Marlowe, but in this one is a well-connected man about town; and a gambler involved with the wrong crowd. All are tough guys who can take a punch, dish it out, down a drink or six, and try to do the right thing. None of the detectives are quite as noble as Marlowe, however. And none of the stories have the witty banter of the best of the Marlowe novels. All the stories are interesting, twisty, and have enough action for Hollywood. A couple stories are too clever for their own good, getting more convoluted than necessary without a road map. Chandler was known to disdain plot for character, and succeeded most of the time as he does in The Simple Art of Murder.  [4★]