Playback: Phillip Marlowe Series, Book 7

Jaded and cynical Los Angeles detective Philip Marlowe meets up with classy, well-endowed redhead Betty Mayfield in this last novel (1958) by the master of mystery, Raymond Chandler. Marlowe is assigned to tail Betty—a cinch, he thinks, until lounge lizard Larry Mitchell turns up dead outside Betty's Hotel room a few hours after pawing her in a California club. Filled with Chandler's famed snappy repartee and starkly frightening scenes, Playback simmers with suspense as Marlowe tries to solve a tale of big money and, of course, murder.