The Goodbye Coast - a Marlowe mystery review

The Goodbye Coast is a Marlowe mystery that was not written by the original author. This series continued past the original author's death into the 2020s. Joe Ide gives him a bit more of an edgy presence and introduces you to Marlowe's police father. It's a new taste on Marlowe, I'll admit, but it does stay true to the character Raymond Chandler created. 

There will be spoilers. Be warned now. 

We have two cases (both chaotic). One is a case Marlowe's past mentor shoved him into and the other came from a rich woman whose daughter ran away. The first was Ren, whose ex-husband had taken their child and refused to return him to her home. The second was a washed-up actress who's home was a wreck and a half socially. She didn't care about her daughter and her husband had been killed. It turns out the daughter, Cody, had something to do with that and had many, many issues. Cody's brother was actually afraid of her because she had violent outbursts and no remorse. 

To make it all even more chaotic, someone was trying to kill Cody. Cody was a royal pain in everyone's back end for the entire book. And the Armenian gang was part of this whole fiasco. It turns out that she killed her own father with the help of her boyfriend because of Russian money laundering. This was a complicated mess and they didn't know Cody was this bad until the very end. 

Marlowe's father was housing her at this time. He'd lost his wife. It was a sad thing and he was definitely a drinker. It turns out she died while he was drunk and hungover. In Cody, he saw the daughter he could have had. She took advantage of him and tried to rob his safe by putting him at gunpoint. Her brother Noah barged in and shot her. The neighbor who saw Noah kill two of the neighbor's family members came in and shot Noah. It was a mess. Marlowe's father was okay, Cody was in real bad shape, and Noah was dead. Not to mention the two men Noah just killed to get into Mr. Marlowe's home. The ending was chaotic, but it always is in Marlowe novels. 

Ren did get her happy ending. She also tried to do things on her own that nearly got her and Marlowe killed, all in desperation of getting her son back. It turns out her ex-husband sold their son to a woman named Victoria. Mr. Marlowe (police Marlowe) went in and came back out with the child. She went to London with her son, after all. 

Closing thoughts

It was nice to see Marlowe and his dad work together. One having police presence was great for their cases. It was also great to hear about his past cases that didn't show up in other books. Marlowe didn't make it as police, but he did make it as a private investigator by shadowing another private investigator for license hours. I liked hearing about that. 

One thing to note, though, is the edgier Marlowe that I saw in this book. Yes, LA is not a safe place to be, but it was a slightly edgier LA set in the present time period (the book published in 2022). I can tell the modern world influenced it. You have references to 2020s movies here, as well as newer actors and people who are not from 1940. This was not the classic Marlowe, but I did like it. 

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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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