The Second Murderer - a Philip Marlowe book review

 This book is a Philip Marlowe mystery, one that isn't by the original author. The Marlowe series continued under modern authors (just like James Bond) into the 2020s. Some are set in modern day, but this one is set in the same period as the original Marlowe series (1940s-ish). You can tell by the Depression-era references. 

This contains spoilers. You've been warned. 

I collect Philip Marlowe books. I currently have all of them, unless they come out with more. I'd love to read more of them. This one starts with a rich, eccentric client who lies to him (as usual, for Marlowe) and ends in a strange sort of ending, where you aren't sure whether you should be happy or not. The client wanted a daughter back, allegedly, but was definitely abusive toward the missing woman previously. In other words, she's an adult and left on her own to avoid abuse. Marlowe shelters her for a while, but she ends up coming back when the client is killed by his own mistress. 

By the way, this book shows you the seedy parts of Los Angeles (Skid Row) and you should expect references to lesbian and homosexual relationships. You have "Jimmy the One" who is not straight, the missing woman herself and the mistress (who were just waiting for the old man to die to be together), and you have Marlowe getting into a "kittens only" club to further his investigation. This is the secret side of L.A., the places the average person wouldn't step into. The club was one of those places you had to know about from someone else, thus Marlowe managed to get in and ask questions he needed to ask. 

Anne Riordan, another private investigator, was hired at the same time as Marlowe and was also offered a bonus to bring the missing woman home. They do bring her back after Marlowe gets jailed by an officer who hates him, but then they break her out again. Soon after that she's beaten and bruised, so they get her out with inside help. The ending is strange, much like the older Marlowe books. She returns to the house after getting a call about the old man being dead. The truth (no one cared, but we know he didn't die naturally) was the mistress killed him. He suffocated soon after they broke the returned woman back out. The missing woman gets together with the mistress and it doesn't look like a healthy relationship. On top of that, there are people who got killed by proximity and bad timing, yet the two women really don't care about those individual people. Marlowe breaks a vase worth a lot of money on the way out because he feels they should lose something. 

Closing Thoughts

I gave it five stars. It's the sort of book that really fits the original character and his sense of honor. He's a bit of a white knight and he deals with people who don't tell him the truth in the first place. He's got sources in low places, drinks, and doesn't end up with any love interests. In fact, he liked Anne Riordan and she was with someone else. The clients, most books, are eccentric in a lovable or hateable way. Sometimes they mean well. This book, they didn't. Two women were waiting for an abusive man to die of whatever disease was killing him. One of them was lured away from home and there's a whole subplot about a man who faked his death and was for-real killed later on. Marlowe usually has a whole mess of chaos to deal with. This book was no different. Simple cases? Never, not with Marlowe. He's talented at finding dead bodies while working cases. 

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Morrow is coming out before Christmas 2025. This novella is the story of two women writing a family history for the Morrow family. They find a nasty secret while researching. Will they survive their internship? Find out when the book releases this year. 

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