I liked this book more than the other one. My book says that this story too was written merging into it some of his short stories, but I haven't read them so can't comment on that.
It's a complicated story. I'll try to explain. It all starts by chance, with Marlowe meeting Moose Malloy, a giant so strong he could carry Marlowe like a doll. Malloy has been eight years in prison. Now that he's out he goes looking for his old girlfriend Velma. The club where she used to sing is now a club for black people who know nothing about her. They make him angry and he kills one of them without even turning green. He's like Hulk without Banner.
At this point nothing much has happened, apparently. The case is given to Nulty who cares very little of "shines killings", which surprised me because I only knew 'shine' as in 'the sun shines' so I searched it and I found this "derogatory meaning: black person, is from 1908 perhaps from glossiness of skin or from frequent employment as shoeshines" and I can only say I'm glad I've never heard it said before, I don't like it. Anyway, back to the story, Marlowe feels involved and starts looking for Velma too. He goes to see the widow of the old owner of the club: Mrs Florian. Later on Malloy goes to her and he kills her, probably unintentionally, he's just too strong... says Marlowe . Anyway, he gets called by a man, Marriott, saying he needs his help. Marriott tells him this story: a lady friend has been robbed, and as it often happens she's been contacted to buy it back. She's asked Marriott to buy back her precious jade necklace, and he wants Marlowe with him to feel safer. Marlowe goes, but gets hit on the head and Marriott gets killed. The daughter of a dead policeman (Anne Riordan) finds him apparently by chance and starts helping him a little, for some reason she fancies him, but she has no great role, only as far as finding for him the name of the lady-friend. Mrs Grayle is the femme fatale, she's beautiful and married to a very rich man. She hires Marlowe and flirts with him. Marlowe goes to meet Amthor, a sort of psychologist, because who knows why Marriott has his cards inside some marijuana cigarettes, or something like that. Amthor probably thinks Marlowe wants to blackmail him so he calls two corrupt cops to handle the matter. Marlowe gets beaten and taken away. He wakes up two days later in a house where a man calling himself Dr Sonderborg kept him drugged, probably to find out what he really knew, but it's sort of speculation because he'll never be found again after Marlowe escapes. Marlowe says it all to the policeman Randall, in charge of the Florian murder. Marlowe goes back to the town where he was imprisoned, to try to talk to the big local boss on one of his ships for gambling. He's helped by an ex-cop (ex because honest, apparently) and simply leaves a message for Malloy, and somehow Malloy receives it and goes to Marlowe's house the same night he invited Mrs Grayle there. He tells him to hide while he sends her away, but he doesn't. Instead, he reveals the truth while he's hidden, listening. Mrs Grayle is Velma, she told on him to the cops eight years before to get rid of him and then married a rich man. Knowing that he was looking for her, she asked (paid) Marriott to kill him, and she herself killed Marriott. Now, it's absurd that Marlowe was not killed, but it's not a writer-mistake, because Chandler has Marlowe say the same thing, so the mistake was Velma's. She either didn't want him dead, thinking maybe it was too dangerous to kill a private cop, or maybe she left him for dead, miscalculating how badly he had been hit on the head (again, not clear if she hit him or if Marriott did it. What is clear is why she wanted Marriott dead. He was a danger because he knew of her past and real identity. When Malloy comes out and sees her and recognizes her, he shoots him five times, then runs away when she's left with no bullets to use against Marlowe. He calls Randall. Eventually she'll be found: she'll kill a policeman and then, when other people will burst in, she'll shoot herself twice. Marlowe says this might be the only good thing she ever did, tired of running away, to save her husband everything that might have come out of a trial, since he was the only person who was always good to her and loved her deeply. Marlowe is left with Anne who has a big crush on him, thinking him so brave and extraordinary, asking to be kissed. Who knows why.
A piece I liked was this: "I thought of dead eyes looking at a moonless sky, with black blood at the corners of the mouths beneath them. I thought of nasty old women beaten to death against the posts of their dirty beds. I thought of a man with bright blond hair who was afraid and didn't quite know what he was afraid of, who was sensitive enough to know that something was wrong, and too vain or too dull to guess what it was that was wrong. I thought of beautiful rich women who could he had. I thought of nice slim curious girls who lived alone and could be had too, in a different way. I thought of cops, tough cops that could be greased and yet were not by any means all bad, like Hemingway. Fat prosperous cops with chamber of commerce voices, like chief Wax. Slim, smart and deadly cops like Randall, who for all their smartness and deadliness were not free to do a clean job in a clean way. I thought of sour old goats like Nulty who had given up trying. I thought of indians and psychics and dope doctors. I thought of lots of things. It got darker."
Marriott was the vain man, Hemingway is how he called cop Galbraith, the cop that followed Captain Blade's orders when they took him away from Amthor's house. Indian was the man working for Amthor, so strong that he almost strangled Marlowe. Amthor will be caught, internationally wanted. One last thing: curiously, Marlowe says his friend Ohls works in the vice squad, but in 'the big sleep' he worked homocide. Didn't he?
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