This isn’t a novel. It’s Chandler’s screenplay for the 1946 film noir starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake — published here with a memoir by John Houseman.

Chandler didn’t invent Philip Marlowe for this one, instead he wrote directly for the screen, and you can feel the compression inside. There's sharper dialogue, cleaner momentum, less philosophical drift. It’s leaner than the novels, but the voice is unmistakable — the moral rot under neon, men who drink too much and know it, women who know more than they’re saying.

If you’re into noir, this is less a story than an artefact. A glimpse of Chandler working inside Hollywood machinery. Fantastic find.