Chandler's finely-wrought prose was admired by many who looked down on detective novels generally; indeed, his use of lyrical similes has become the emblem of private-eye fiction for those who know little of it, the basis of innumerable parodies and imitations. His essay "The Simple Art of Murder" is a standard academic reference on detective fiction.
Novels include: The Big Sleep, his first; Farewell, My Lovely; The Lady in the Lake; The High Window, The Little Sister; and The Long Good-Bye. All concern the cases of a Los Angeles investigator named [Phillip Marlowe]?, "a nice clean private detective who wouldn't drop cigar ashes on the floor and never carried more than one gun," as Marlowe describes himself on the first page of The High Window.
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