The resurrection of 30s and 40s detective Philip Marlowe in this year's novel is a maze of misery.
It's easy to understand why best selling author Benjamin Black did not have a best seller in his latest book, "The Black-Eyed Blonde." Black futility tries to bring back the heralded detective created by Raymond Chandler when black and white movies ruled the big screen of dark theaters across the globe.
Fictional private dick, Philip Marlowe was brilliantly brought to life by Humphrey Bogart in at least two films; "The Maltese Falcon," (1941) and "The Big Sleep." (1946). Marlowe, the private detective first emerged in Chandler's 1939 novel, "The Big Sleep."
A young woman's enticing beauty, sexual desires and conquests blended into a martini complete with deception, mystery, murder and money are ingredients for a phenomenal story, yet "The Black-Eyed Blonde" is a barrage of boring.
The non use of profanity and the PG way the book was written is fine, but heavy adult material needs some intrigue, a blast of real sin, a taste of heart felt emotions conflicting with harsh realities and decisions embedded in a sound mind.
The story begins when Marlowe is in his office when a foxy well dressed blonde woman comes into his office, Mrs. Cavendish offering big money to locate her lover, Nico Peterson. Peterson was the man she was cheating on her husband with. Cavendish withholds a lot of useful information to Marlowe and a lot of plot twists come about. All the plot twist lead to an uninteresting tale of terrible.
By the time its found out love was an illusion, the big bucks weren't there and Marlowe will live to work another case, so what. "The Black-Eyed Blonde" was less interesting than a tag on the collar of T-shirt, as captivating as toe nail clippings and as much fun to read as an electric companies odometer.
The movie "The Big Sleep" with Bogart (detective Marlowe) and Lauren Bacall defined 'cool.' Marlowe's candor in the "Maltese Falcon" was priceless especially when he's offered $100.00 (serious cash in 1941) for a retaining fee, and his client says, "you will take, say $100.00? Marlowe reaches into the mans wallet, takes $200.00 dollars and replies, " I will take say $200.00. My point is that if your going to resurrect a classic character, make sure the character stays true to there natural form and charm and not completely pulverize the character and transform it from funny and entertaining to drab and dull.
The only reason I gave this horrible read even one star was because of the way Marlowe described the cigarette woman working at the movie theater; 'She was a nice looking girl serving cigarettes and candy dressed in a chambermaids out fit, complete with the short shirt. I got the image of Bogart's cool sounding voice intoning those words. The book also ripped on my home town of Santa Rosa which also helped up its rating for me.
The city of Santa Rosa is not friendly or welcoming to the entertainment industry. At least when it comes to horror movies, just read the credits to the movie "Scream;" And no thanks to the City of Santa Rosa...
