Killer in the Rain [Mass Market Paperback]

Raymond Chandler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 1987

It was in the pulp detective magazines of the 1930s that Raymond Chandler's definitive take on the hard-boiled detective story first appeared. Here then, from the well-thumbed pages of "Black Mask" and "Dime Detective Magazine", are eight of his finest stories including "The Man Who Liked Dogs", "The Lady in the Lake" and "Bay City Blues". Sharper than a hoodlum's switchblade, more exciting than an unexpected red-head and stronger than a double shot of whisky, they are packed full of the punchy poetry and laconic wit that makes Chandler the undisputed master of his genre.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Elliott Gould is an Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee who has performed in over 70 feature films. Upcoming motion picture projects include Playing Mona Lisa, and Picking up the Pieces, with Woody Allen and Sharon Stone.

He can be seen ongoing in his recurring role on NBC's smash hit, Friends. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Best-known as the creator of the original private eye, Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, and he is widely regarded as one of the very greatest writers of detective fiction. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345351851
• ISBN-13: 978-0345351852
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,364,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eight short stories Chandler didn't want reprinted!, January 16, 2006

By 

emanuel maris "MannyLunch" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

What the description fails to mention is that Raymond Chandler did not allow this particular group of stories to be republished after their initial appearances in pulp magazines of the thirties.
The reason? These were the eight stories that Chandler cannibalized to form the substance and sub-plots of:
The Black Sleep [taken from "The Curtain" and "Killer In The Rain"],
Farewell My Lovely [using "The Man Who Liked Dogs", "Try The Girl" and "Mandarin's Jade"], and
The Lady In The Lake [assembled with "Bay City Blues", "Lady In The Lake", and "No Crime In The Mountains"],
the first, second and fourth, respectively, of his seven novels featuring the archetypal noir detective Philip Marlowe. (The High Window, The Little Sister and its follow-up The Long Goodbye were all wholly originated as novels, while Playback was rewritten from an unused treatment that did not originally have Marlowe as a character)
Several years after Chandler's death in 1959, Ballantine Books, which in the '60s and '70s had the licensing rights to Chandler's work, went ahead and published these as a group in the book we have here, Killer In The Rain.

Unfortunately, no publisher since has put these eight stories out again - neither Vintage, which publishes all seven novels as well as the contents of the three Ballantine collections of pre-novel short stories (The Simple Art Of Murder, Pick-Up On Noon Street, and Trouble Is My Business); even the two volume collected works published in handsome hardcover form by Library Of America, virtually complete in every other aspect, omits these stories, which leads one to wonder if the Chandler estate - such as it is - has reinstated Chandler's ban on the public having access to these stories - until such time as they truly become public domain.
With the trend towards longer copyright life -designed soley to keep uncreative marketing/publishing people making an easy living off work which, after the creator's death, should belong to the freely accesible world culture domain, instead of putting more effort into marketing the works of the living creators who most deserve the remuneration whilst still alive - many of us may not actually still be here when they can be published by anyone without restriction. So grab a copy of these original masterpieces while there are dealers still with copies!~ MannyLunch

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars NOTE: Read the "Foreword" . . . afterward!, December 7, 2001

By 

Paul Dana (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer in the Rain (Mass Market Paperback)

Raymond Chandler learned his craft, initially, by writing short stories for the famous hardboiled magazine, "Black Mask." When it came time to move on, Chandler "cannibalized" many of those early stories to create his first four novels, combining plot elements and scenes while expanding and amplifying their passages. During his lifetime, he never allowed the republication of the stories.

"Killer In The Rain" presents them, along with an excellent foreword by Phillip Durham in which he discusses Chandler's ability to heighten a description, deepen a mood, to prolong the tension in a situation through these reworkings; or, as Durham puts it, "to see, to sense, and to say." If you want to read these tales for their "story value," though, you're best served by skipping this Foreword until after you've read them.

The stories, true to the genre, are invariably violent, even brutal, particularly in their resolutions. ("The rule was," Chandler once wrote, "when in doubt, have someone come through the door with a gun in his hand.") Yet, even at this early stage in his career, as these stories illustrate, both Chandler's singular style and thematic sense were already largely in place.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy this if you've read all his novels, March 13, 2001

By 

skag_vicar (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer in the Rain (Mass Market Paperback)

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good literature. It contains short stories written for the pulp magazine Black Mask, and provides a fascinating insight into how Chandler created his novels, many of which are based on the short stories within this book. Even if you've never read Chandler before then these stories would provide a fine introduction to the incredible style of writing he created.